


It's a long way back (when you're halfway to hell)

by strangenessandcharm



Series: Hate the sin love the sinner [Leverage AU] [3]
Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Thieves, Ambiguous Relationships, Angst, Domestic Fluff, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Found Family, Hospitals, Leverage AU, M/M, Morally Ambiguous Character, Non-Chronological, POV Multiple, but like low key angst lbh, no one has a happy backstory, ridiculous amounts of terrible humour, somehow there's a ridiculous amount of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-01
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-07-28 17:03:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 185,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7649209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strangenessandcharm/pseuds/strangenessandcharm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The jobs they pull are important, the clients perhaps even more so, but the most important part of this story is how they come together (and the moments they fall apart).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> AKA 5 years of the Infinite team providing leverage, with a focus on their relationships rather than the jobs themselves.
> 
> The plan is basically to write this and then write specific jobs into proper stories like I did with Paradise. We’ll see how I go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -
> 
> Honestly, I meant to wait to publish anything but as motivation for myself - and also since I've gotten 20K of this written in ten days I'm publishing now (whilst my gorgeous beta is out of internet range so she can't talk me out of it). I guess I'll think of it as an early birthday present to myself? xD ( I probably could start a publishing schedule now but I'm changing my mind every two days on whether it should be chronological or not which kind of effects everything)(especially since I'm just writing scenes I want to write with no rhyme or reason)
> 
> I need to find some self-restraint before I start publishing drafts (or writing authors notes longer than the fic)
> 
> Alright here we go, and it really will be a little while until I actually start publishing this properly since I need to discuss with my beta what to do and she won't be back for at least three weeks.

  _We're a team.  
__We're a little more than a team._

 

 

 

**♚♚♚**

**PROLOGUE**

 

“Two weeks,” Sunggyu grumbles not particularly under his breath as he arrives back in the house that’s effectively been their home base for the last six months, “Two weeks is all I’ve been away for and yet this place turns into a mess when I’m gone.” He’s pretty sure he saw a condom wrapper of all things on the floor by the door, but he’s not going back to check since that’s one thing he’d rather not know about his team.

“You say that,” Woohyun’s head pops up over the sofa, “Like you’re not an active participant in the mess making yourself.”

“If it’s this messy when I’m away then clearly I do not actually contribute to the mess that much,” Sunggyu grumbles, dropping his bag in the middle of the room because he knows Dongwoo will pick it up later.

“I think, it’s more that Dongwoo was on strike,” Myungsoo’s head joins Woohyun’s poking over the top of the couch. Which means if they’re both here, and knowing that Sungjong is in Singapore, that Hoya must be somewhere nearby as well.

“Dongwoo went on strike?” Sunggyu asks, eyebrows raising into his hairline as he heads for the fridge. He doesn’t want to know what happened and he certainly doesn’t want to know who managed to get under Dongwoo’s skin. Mostly he just hopes whatever it is has been sorted out without him because he really doesn’t care for playing mediator.

“I think he missed you,” Woohyun coos teasingly. “Mostly the fact that Myungsoo had no one on his ass to be clean.”

“Hey,” Myungsoo says in more out of obligation than any sort of offence, “I’m not that bad.”

“You mean he was messier than he usually is?” Sunggyu’s eyebrows are probably going to disappear into his hair and never come back one of these days. He’s surprised it hasn’t happened sooner.

“Exponentially,” Woohyun says dryly. Myungsoo throws a pillow in his general direction though it sails past his head. That must be on purpose though because whilst Myungsoo is not the most coordinated person on the planet being with Hoya for nine years has given him a wicked aim.

“I miss the days you all had your own places to mess up,” Sunggyu sighs wondering if it’s too early after getting back to have a drink. Whilst everyone still does have their own place, more often than not they end up scattered throughout the bedrooms in the rooms of this house. The house that Sunggyu is the only one paying the rent on.

“You like having us here,” Woohyun is clearly in a good mood today, if he’s being so snarky, “Because it means you don’t have to wait for us to assemble when called.”

“We’re not the fucking avengers,” Myungsoo mutters under his breath. Now it’s Woohyun’s turn to throw the pillow.

Sunggyu decides yes fuck it he is going to drink if he has to deal with these two and pulls a cider out of the fridge. At least he can count on these idiots to keep the alcohol restocked of all things.

As Sunggyu pops the cap off the bottle he realises despite the fact that Woohyun and Myungsoo have been bickering like crazy since he got in (it’s a rare but not unheard of event those two sometimes get in moods that Sunggyu refuses to think any deeper about) they’ve barely raised their voices.

When he comes further into the room though he can see why. Hoya is curled up between the two of them fast asleep, his head in Myungsoo’s lap and his injured ankle cradled gently in Woohyun’s.

Sunggyu softens at the sight, just slightly, “How is he?” He asks, not liking the fact they’re effectively down a hitter at the moment. Dongwoo is brilliant, Sunggyu has trusted Dongwoo with his life for over ten years, but he’s still going to be more comfortable once Hoya’s back in commission. Especially because the two on the couch have a habit of getting into trouble that it requires the combined muscle of Dongwoo and Hoya to get out of.

“As stupidly stubborn and pigheaded as every other fucking member of this team,” Sungyeol announces his presence melodramatically as always as he comes out of the bedroom he’s claimed, “So basically probably fucking himself up worse by not taking time to recover.”

“As expected then,” Sunggyu says dryly.

“Couldn’t you just tie him to the bed or something,” Sungyeol asks Myungsoo teasingly, “Would that not work.”

Sunggyu puts up a hand in the vain hope he can stop this conversation before it starts. He’d really rather not know.

Unfortunately Myungsoo shrugs and answers, “You think there is any knot I could tie that Hoya could not get out of in thirty seconds if he wanted?”

“Twenty seconds,” the voice of the man himself speaks up, slightly hoarse with sleep so at least Sunggyu can be fairly sure he actually has been sleeping and not listening to their conversation “Absolute maximum.”

“Yes but thirty is a nicer number,” Myungsoo says as if that explains anything. Hoya nods into his leg like it does.

“Where’s Dongwoo?” Sunggyu asks, grasping onto the first even remotely productive topic of conversation he can think of.

“Not here?” Woohyun offers incredibly unhelpfully. Sunggyu can see that Dongwoo isn’t here thank you very much.

Before Sunggyu can speak, Sungyeol is speaking because when is he not, “That’s not good enough, now the captain is back we’ve got to remember to report where we are at every second of every day.”

Sunggyu is sorely tempted to throw something at Sungyeol himself. Subordinate brat.

“Why?” Hoya asks, still curled up smaller than Sunggyu has ever seen him (except for when it happened, a part of his brain reminds him) on his two human pillows, “Do you have a job for us?”

“Of course I do,” Sunggyu says. This one is going to be fun as well, something a bit outside the box.

After all it’s not every day you get to challenge everything a person knows about the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before I sign off 2 quick questions  
> 1\. Which would be preferable to you for this story, shorter chapters once or twice a week or longer chapters every couple of weeks?  
> 2\. Can anyone give me a crash course in the Lovelyz girl's, or just direct me towards somewhere I can find out for myself (not too long videos if possible since my internet speed is appalling)?
> 
> Thanks for popping in :)


	2. Chapter One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually don't know how many chapters this story will have, but the 2/? makes me anxious so I'm just taking a wild stab in the dark.
> 
> Look I said I'd be MIA for longer but we should all learn to never listen to me about updating. My gorgeous beta got back way sooner than I expected (I need to learn to listen) and this chapter is ready to go now so why not, I guess onday will be my update day for now (though it's really 4am on Tuesday now) (when I've got more chapters sorted I might start updating twice a week but I'd like to have more than one chapter in the bank before we do that).

_The world doesn't work this way._  
_So change the world._

♟♟♟

 

“Are you talking to me now?” Howon asks as he walks into the living room of the apartment where Myungsoo has been situated for the past four hours (Myungsoo is not pouting - he’s not, no matter what Howon may say), “Or are you still pretending to be annoyed at me?”

“I’m not pretending,” Myungsoo says, crossing his arms over his chest to illustrate just how really, actually annoyed he is at Howon right now. 

“Alright,” Howon says humour evident in his voice, “How long are you going to continue being really annoyed at me? Do you have a time you’ll be no longer annoyed? Because I’ll come back then,”

“I can’t tell if that’s a really bad attempt at humour or if you’re just being weird,” Myungsoo reluctantly looks at Howon, which is probably the whole point of the stupid statement because looking at Howon has always made it so much harder to be mad at him. Stupid Howon and his stupid face, Myungsoo thinks petulantly. 

“What I’m doing is respecting your right to be fake angry at me,” Howon tells him with a cheeky grin that Myungsoo has to physically fight the urge to return by frowning in a ridiculously over the top manner. 

“Not fake angry,” Myungsoo pouts, “You kept things from me and you  _promised_  you wouldn’t do that anymore.”

Howon softens, looks at him in that way that makes Myungsoo feel so, so important (back at the start - when it was just the two of them it was overwhelming because Myungsoo had never felt important let alone like the most important person in someone’s world. Now it just makes him feel warm), “Do you want to talk about it, or should I give you some space to think things through?"

“I think I want to talk about it,” Myungsoo says, drawing legs which had been spread across the couch up to his chest so that Howon could take a seat. 

“Alright.” Howon nods, sitting down in the empty space, close enough Myungsoo could touch him if he wanted to, but not so close that he’s actually in Myungsoo’s space, “I didn’t tell you, it’s true but you can’t tell me you didn’t know.” 

Myungsoo looks up at Howon in wide eyed shock. “Myungsoo, Eunji and Soojung both told me that Soojung was trying to get a message to you.” Howon explains patiently.

“Oh,” Myungsoo says, looking down at his hands. He hadn’t thought of it that way. 

“Yeah, so I didn’t tell you because I knew that you already knew or you would have a way to find out.” Howon says, not judging him or accusing him, at least on the surface, “So I agreed with Sunggyu not to tell you as a strategic decision, to earn his trust.”

Myungsoo sticks his foot out until it’s tucked under Howon’s thigh as a peace offering before saying, “That sounds very sinister, makes it sound like you’re planning to con him or double cross him or something.”

Howon pulls a face, “Damn, and here I thought my plan to murder him and assume his throne as mastermind of this team was fool-proof and subtle.”

“I think,” Myungsoo says, seriously considering it even though he knows that Howon is joking, “That anyone who wants to lead this group of people couldn’t be anything except for a fool.” 

“That is a very good point Soo,” Howon laughs, reaching out to cup his ankle, “Anyone who wants to try and tell Sungyeol and Woohyun what to do on a regular basis must be barking mad.”

“And you,” Myungsoo says, “Don’t sell yourself short; I think you’re probably Sunggyu’s biggest problem.” Especially since Sunggyu had no experience with Howon and didn’t really know what he was getting himself into there - Howon and Myungsoo weren’t ‘handpicked’ by Sunggyu, they just invited themselves in. Sunggyu probably didn’t like that, maybe that was part of the reason Sunggyu and Hoya clashed so much. 

“True,” Howon admits easily, “But if I was leader I wouldn’t have to deal with myself.”

“And you’re also barking mad,” Myungsoo tells him appraisingly, “And Woohyun maybe respects you more than Sunggyu-“

“I really wouldn’t go that far. At all. Woohyun kind of thinks I’m a dumb soldier,” Howon interrupts dryly.

Myungsoo pretends he hasn’t spoken, “And you would never send me to jail so you know what please overthrow Sunggyu, I’ll help you and everything.” 

“As heart-warming as your confidence is, I think I will pass.” Howon says, the look on his face that’s equal parts fondness and amusement appearing as it does whenever Myungsoo gets off topic. Which reminds him, he’s gotten them way off topic.  

“Okay. Okay I’m not angry anymore, I wasn’t really angry anyway,” he admits easily. Howon knows him so well anyway, there’s really no point in pretending anymore (pretending for a little while did make him feel better though so he doesn’t regret the fact that he did it).  

“No, you were hurt,” Howon tells him exactly, proving his point about knowing him so well.

“I don’t like when you don’t tell me things,” Myungsoo admits easily. It’s an integral fact of life, it’s the way the world is. 

“I promise I only did it because I knew you knew,” Howon says with an easy honesty. Myungsoo’s slightly proud of that, after all this time it’s so easy for Howon to tell him the truth now, “And now Sunggyu knows I didn’t tell you when I promised you I wouldn’t and everyone wins.”

“You could have just told me though,” Myungsoo narrows his eyes, “And I could have  _acted_  angry with you and we could have avoided all this,” It is Myungsoo’s role in the team after all, to be convincing when angry.

“Better safe than sorry,” Howon says which actually annoys Myungsoo for real a little this time. Howon can clearly see that though because he squeezes Myungsoo’s ankle, “They know you Soo, you’d have acted a very good angry, but they know you’d have been more hurt than angry. I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you but it’s important that Sunggyu trusts me all things considered.” 

“I know,” Myungsoo says, looking down at his lap, “But let me be annoyed at you for a bit longer okay?”

“Okay.” Hoya squeezes again, “Do you want me to go or can I stay?"” 

“Stay please.” Myungsoo says.

“Alright,” Hoya agrees easily, picking up a book that he’d discarded on the side table a few nights ago and reading it, leaving Myungsoo a few minutes to his thoughts without having to be alone with them which always increases his chances of getting lost in them. 

“Why do you need Sunggyu to trust you?” Myungsoo eventually asks the question that he needs in order to contextualise everything.

“You mean I need a reason that I want our ‘leader’ to trust me and get the fuck off my back?” Howon, to his credit, doesn’t even question Myungsoo asking what probably seems out of the blue, just puts his book down.

“You need a reason to need him to trust you this badly.” Myungsoo says determinedly. He needs a reason to accept Howon playing him, no matter how minimal it might be. 

“Soo,” Howon turns bodily towards him, face as imploring as his ego will ever let him get, “You  _know_  how dangerous this is. You know how hard they’re going to come at us, no matter how optimistic Sunggyu is being or pretending to be. If we have any chance of outplaying the outside threat then we’ve got to make sure we don’t tear ourselves apart from the inside.” 

Myungsoo can see the logic in that. “Okay.” He nods in understanding. It’s a very Howon way to think and he’s not wrong, he knows more than anyone else in the team about outside forces coming for you. “Sorry for not understanding.” 

“It’s fine Soo, I should be the one apologising for not telling you,” Howon says, reaching out to grab his ankle again, “So we’re good, you’re not mad?”

“No.” Myungsoo says. Maybe it’s a character flaw of his, how willing he is to forgive Howon, or maybe it’s a sign of an unhealthy relationship because it probably goes both ways. He can’t bring himself to care though.

“Good, because I have something I need to talk to you about.” Howon says looking unsure. “I’m not sure what to do.”

Even to Myungsoo it’s a rare day that Howon’s pride will let him admit that he doesn’t know: he’ll talk things through with Myungsoo and value his opinion, but he won’t come out and say he doesn’t know, so this must be big, “About what?” Myungsoo asks. 

“Do you think I should tell Sunggyu?” Howon looks him straight in the eye and asks.  

“Tell him what?” Myungsoo  _thinks_  he knows what this is about but he’d like Howon to actually tell him so that if he turns out to be wrong he won’t have stuck his foot in his mouth,

“About Woohyun,” Howon says, gesturing in the air wildly with his free hand, “About you know, his potential conflict of interest.”

“What do you think you should do?” Myungsoo asks curiously, wondering if Howon is just looking for validation in what he thinks is the right course of action.

“I honestly have no idea,” Howon admits, dropping his head onto the back of the couch with a thud, “On one hand look at what I’ve gone through to get Sunggyu to trust me, the things I did that I didn’t want to, one the other hand…”

“On the other hand you don’t want Sunggyu to stop trusting Woohyun,” Myungsoo says, continuing what he assumes Howon is going to say, “Since Sunggyu doesn’t understand.” 

“Sunggyu forgets how new he is to all this,” Howon says with a wry smile, “So what do you think I should do?”

“Do you trust that it’s not going to compromise Woohyun?” Myungsoo asks carefully. He’s pretty sure Howon trusts Woohyun, trusts him absolutely. 

That’s why it’s a surprise to him when Howon shrugs, “I don’t know. I don’t know how deep the loyalty runs.”

“In Woohyun?” Myungsoo can’t asking with a snort. He likes Woohyun, he likes the fact that Woohyun takes time out of his day to pass on little tricks and stories and bits of advice to Myungsoo, never holding the fact he’s been doing the whole grifting thing a damn sight longer over Myungsoo’s head or being high and mighty about it. 

On the other hand it’s Woohyun, he’s an enigma who still despite everything keeps large chunks of himself hidden. And unlike Howon and Myungsoo (and pretty much everyone else, Myungsoo would assume) it’s not so much that he conceals parts of his past, more that he keeps fundamental parts of his personality hidden. 

Myungsoo can never quite figure out if it’s because they’re parts of himself he doesn’t like, or if it’s because he has some ulterior motive.

 “In Woohyun,” Howon confirms with a nod. Myungsoo must still look sceptical because Howon asks, “Who in the world are you most loyal to?”

 Myungsoo’s barely even had time for his brain to process the questions before he’s answering, “You of course,”

“Why?” Howon asks.

“Because you were the first person who wasn’t bad to me,” Myungsoo says, lightbulb going off in his head as he says the words, “Okay. I get it.” 

“Yeah,” Howon nods, continuing to look troubled, “You see where I’m coming from?”

“I think so,” Myungsoo nods, turning the problem over in his head, trying to figure out what to do when he doesn’t really have any sort of understanding of the relationships at play here. 

“You know Woohyun better than I do,” Myungsoo says keeping his voice as level as possible, “Do you think it’ll be a problem?”

Howon sighs, looking so incredibly confused about everything that it makes Myungsoo want to fix it, badly, “I don’t know. You know what Woohyun’s like, do any of us really know him?" 

“I wonder what it’s like, to have that little trust in people that you’re meant to trust with your life.” Myungsoo says, categorically not thinking about the fact that if he’d never hooked up with Howon he potentially could have ended up like that. 

“I’m not sure it’s us that he doesn’t trust,” Howon says cryptically before sighing, “So, do I tell Sunggyu? Because if he finds out and knows I didn’t tell him it’s going to be…” 

“Unbearable? Insufferable? Intolerable?” Myungsoo suggests blandly.

Howon barks out a laugh, “All of the above.” 

“Does Woohyun know that you know?” Myungsoo asks. This is one of those calls that Howon really doesn’t want to make, is trusting Myungsoo to make, so he sticks his problem solving hat firmly in place. 

“I don’t imagine so, he mentioned it during the Paradise Job.” Howon says with a frown. That’s the one job no one likes talking about, especially not Howon or Woohyun, “He barely remembers anything from that night.” 

“Okay,” Myungsoo says grim faced. If Howon can’t make this decision than he’s going to, “Then don’t tell Sunggyu. If Sunggyu finds out about it there’s no way he can know that you knew since I’m not going to tell him.” Myungsoo nods as if to convince Howon that his plan is the best plan, “And if it bites us in the ass we’ll have bigger things to worry about than Sunggyu’s trust in us.”

“Thank you Soo, you never fail to reassure me.” Howon says sarcastically.

Myungsoo aims a bright smile at him, “Thank you, that’s the reason you keep me around, isn’t it?”

“Well,” Howon says with the secretive little smile that is probably Myungsoo’s favourite thing that exists on this entire planet, “It’s one of them.”

And like that they’re okay. At least one thing is.

 

♖♖♖

POST SHE’S BACK JOB: JANUARY 2011 

It had taken Dongwoo less time than he would have expected to get used to the spontaneity and complete lack of structure that comes with working with a group of criminals. (He knows Sunggyu hasn’t gotten used to it yet and probably never will, even though everyone involved will work better if he at least learns to compromise). 

Dongwoo readjusted to the chaos relatively quickly, it’s easy to see the parallels between this life on the wrong side of the law and the turmoil that was his teenage years, but that still doesn’t mean he’s prepared for the vicious ways in which the others can go after each other. 

Especially Sungjong and Sungyeol. 

He’s sitting in the kitchen minding his own business and waiting for one of Sunggyu's infamous briefings, when Sungyeol starts yelling bloody murder. Not five seconds later Sungjong drops out of the ceiling (Dongwoo should be used to that, yet somehow despite his pretty finely honed awareness of his surroundings Sungjong is constantly getting the drop on him). 

By the time Sungyeol makes it into the room Sungjong is sitting calmly in the corner of the room, book in his hand like he’s been here all along, “Lee Sungjong,” Sungyeol says stalking over to him, “Where the fuck is it.”

“Where is what?” Sungjong asks steadily, flipping a page of his book for effect and not looking up at Sungyeol. Dongwoo can practically see the steam that’s trying to escape from Sungyeol’s ears.

 “Where is my hard drive degausser,” Sungyeol glowers. He doesn’t look very intimidating, in Dongwoo’s opinion, though he’s probably seen scarier people in his life than the average person on the street. On the other hand Sungjong doesn’t look particularly cowered either so maybe Sungyeol’s just not very good at being intimidating. 

“Why would I know,” Sungjong says with a levelness to his voice that impresses Dongwoo. Maybe he should ask for tips. “You probably just misplaced it.”

“I’ll misplace you,” Sungyeol says, which is potentially the worst comeback that Dongwoo has ever had the misfortune of hearing in his life.

“Well, you do misplace pretty much everything else.” Sungjong looks up for the first time with a straight face. 

Sungyeol is doing his best impression of an enraged Sunggyu now, which is amazing because Dongwoo honestly never thought he could see anyone get even close to the level of indignant anger that Sunggyu has mastered over the years. 

“Where did you put it Sungjong?” Sungyeol sighs in indignant resignation, hands on his hips and everything. It kind of reminds Dongwoo of getting scolded by his aunt for stealing the last cookie when he was six (not that he would ever tell Sungyeol).

“Nowhere,” Sungjong insists, though Dongwoo is pretty sure that he actually has taken it, “Why would I care?”

“You wouldn’t care about it but you’re trying to piss me off,” Sungyeol crosses his arms over his chest. Perhaps he is, but Sungyeol probably did something to deserve it.

“I don’t care about you that much,” Sungjong says dismissively, returning his eyes to his book though he’s obviously not reading.  

“Lee Sungjong, give it back to me or I’ll upload that video from a few weeks ago online and make  _sure_  it goes viral.” Dongwoo doesn’t know what video he’s talking about, but judging by the way Sungjong stiffens ever so slightly, he does.

He plays it coy though, “Be my guest, but you’re the one that’ll have to deal with Sunggyu when he loses his shit about remaining inconspicuous.” 

Sungyeol lets out a yell that’s probably not entirely human at that, bringing a very unimpressed looking Woohyun to the doorway. “What the fuck are you doing Sungyeol?”

“Sungjong stole my degausser wand,” Sungyeol says, crossing his arms over his chest, “The very important hard drive eraser that I need in order to get  _any_  of our jobs done.”

“Didn’t steal it,” Sungjong interjects playfully, flicking another page of his book. 

“You mean the degausser wand that’s sitting on the table in the hallway?” Woohyun asks, raising his eyebrows sceptically.

“On the table in the hallway,” Sungyeol mutters under his breath, “Of course it’s not on the table in the hallway, I would have noticed it as I came in.”

 “So it’s just the  _other_  very expensive degausser that someone has misplaced on the table is it?” Woohyun asks sarcastically.

“There’s no degausser wand on the hallway table.” Sungyeol says in exasperation, before stomping out the room as though to prove his point.

The way Woohyun is frowning, and Sungjong is letting himself smile in triumph now that Sungyeol is out of the room tells Dongwoo that yes, Sungyeol will find it on the hallway table.

Dongwoo would question how Sungjong had gotten it there in the twenty seconds it had taken Sungyeol to get to the room but he learned within two days of meeting the kid that questioning how he did the things he did was just asking for a headache. 

“Lee Sungjong,” Sungyeol roars after a pause, clearly having found the missing wand exactly where Woohyun had said it was “Forget uploading anything online I am going to murder you in your sleep.” 

“I’d like to see you try,” Sungjong retorts loudly. Dongwoo looks away for what can only be five seconds so that he can roll his eyes with Woohyun in commiseration, but when he looks back Sungjong has disappeared again.

Sungyeol returns to the room, takes one look around, and storms out again muttering under his breath about how he’s going to drain Sungjong’s bank accounts and donate them to Norwegian Government.

“Do I want to know?” Woohyun asks Dongwoo with a raised eyebrow.

“Probably not,” Dongwoo shrugs cheerfully, “And even if you  _did_  want to know I’m not sure I could tell you since I’ve got no clue what just happened myself.” 

“I think Sungjong just showed Sungyeol exactly who’s got the best pranking skills around here,” Woohyun smirks as he walks into the room and sits on the couch next to Dongwoo. 

“That’s not going to stop Sungyeol though,” Dongwoo points out.

“No, but it’ll be an awful lot of fun for us,” Woohyun says. Dongwoo’s not sure he’d classify it as fun but as long as he’s not getting caught in any cross hairs he’ll deal. 

“Do you think they’ll be back by the time Sunggyu is?” Dongwoo asks instead, since Sunggyu is out meeting a client now and had called them all in for a meeting - hence why they’d all been there.  

“Sungjong will be,” Woohyun shrugs. Sungyeol probably won’t be, too busy trying to find Sungjong or plotting his revenge.  

Dongwoo is used to the impulsive nature of this world he’s now living in, he relishes in it, feels it fits him better than the structure of his old life ever did. He’s not sure he’ll ever be used to the ruthless way that everyone conducts themselves.  

He’s not sure he ever wants to be. 

 

 ♘♘♘

LAST ROMEO JOB : MAY 2014

 

“What’s the case this time?” Dongwoo asks Sungyeol as he walks into what is probably meant to be the study of their current base of operations, but is currently being used as their meeting and planning room. At least it’s a step up from the kitchen in Seoul.

“Why do you think I know?” Sungyeol asks with raised eyebrows as if this isn’t a conversation that’s been had before every job. Sungjong resents the fact that Sunggyu calls them all together as he’s meeting with the client to wait for him, but what can you do.

“And where’s Sungjong, he’s never the last one here,” Sungyeol adds almost as an afterthought.

Sungjong schools his face into an impassive mask as he jumps down from the bookcase he’d been sitting on, taking great pleasure in the loud squawk that Sungyeol makes as he lands on his feet right in front of him, “I’m not, you’re just unobservant.” Sungjong says as haughtily as possible as Myungsoo and Dongwoo laugh at Sungyeol. Howon’s just grinning fondly at them all.

“Is it’s Woohyun’s turn to meet the client with Dongwoo then?” Myungsoo asks curiously, swinging his legs backwards and forwards as Sungjong sits on the long table next to him. “And follow up question, does he think we haven’t noticed he’s basically taking turns to get everyone to meet with clients.” 

“Not me,” Howon offers with an unconcerned shrug. Sungjong raises his hand as well, “Me neither.”

“It’s because he thinks you’ll undermine him,” Myungsoo tells Howon seriously, “I don’t know about you,” He turns to Sungjong with a shrug. 

“I don’t want to.” Sungjong says simply. Sunggyu did ask him once, and his flat out refusal was so emphatic that he hasn’t tried again. “I would like it if Sungyeol would tell us about the job though.” He says, since he thinks that will get the others onto the topic. 

“Can’t tell you,” Sungyeol says. Sungjong is sure the reason Sungyeol doesn’t tell them things is not out of any great respect for Sunggyu’s requests but because he likes lording information over them. Sungjong makes a mental note to steal his watch later.

“The file on Sungyeol’s computer is called the ‘Last Romeo Job’,” Myungsoo offers cheerfully, continuing to swing his legs. 

“How did you get into Sungyeol’s computer?” Dongwoo asks, his voice a blend of curiosity and disapproval

“Sungyeol is teaching me to hack.” Myungsoo says, beaming like it’s the coolest thing he’s ever done. Perhaps it is Myungsoo’s dedicated ‘coolest thing ever’ for this week.

“I’m teaching you to hack other people, not me.” Sungyeol huffs, rolling his eyes good-naturedly. 

“Well there’s no greater test than your laptop,” Myungsoo says all fake wide-eyed earnestness. Myungsoo obviously exaggerates it to his own advantage often - but Sungjong wonders sometimes, how much of that is real. If it’s too much for the world they’re in or if it’s none at all. 

“Yeah, that’s true.” Sungyeol shrugs. Every single person in the room knows that there’s no way anyone - especially not Myungsoo - is going to get into anything that Sungyeol doesn’t want them seeing. Still, the fact that he got past any sort of security set up by Sungyeol (who would never leave anything unprotected even if it wasn’t secret) is impressive.

“So what kind of job is ‘The Last Romeo Job’?” Myungsoo asks curiously.

“One with a really wanky name,” Hoya says dryly. Sungyeol has a habit of giving the jobs terrible names that unfortunately catch on with everyone involved, much to Sunggyu’s annoyance. Sungjong’s probably not the only one that uses Sungyeol’s kitsch names just to annoy Sunggyu, but others like Dongwoo just get into the habit. 

“It’s a name kind of reminiscent of ‘the Man In Love Job’,” Myungsoo says looking incredibly nervous. Sungjong doesn’t blame him in the slightest.

“I don’t think Sunggyu is going to be recycling jobs anytime soon,” Dongwoo reassures Myungsoo with a cheerful smile. Sungjong agrees, mostly because Sunggyu’s ego would never let him do it.  

“He might not be recycling the job, just the general idea.” Myungsoo refutes, before (completely unnecessarily - everyone knows his feelings on the subject) adding, “I never want to pull a job anything like it again,”

“Yes well, as much as I’m sure we all enjoyed our fake gay marriage experience last time,” Sunggyu says drolly walking into the room with Woohyun close behind him, “No, that is not a thing we’re doing again. Ever.”

Sungjong thinks that’s a pretty good decision but he has to admit he did enjoy the dramatics that went on around the last experience. He’s not sure who hated the experience more, Sunggyu or Myungsoo.  (what he does know is that it was clearly Sungyeol who got the most enjoyment out of it).

“Are you sure?” Sungyeol says with a dramatic pout (as if he didn’t already know the plan himself), “I think it was one of our most successful jobs.”

“Only if you’re the one faking married this time,” Woohyun retorts wryly, taking his regular seat at the table (he’s the only one actually sitting around the table at this point).

“Sure, sounds fun,” Sungyeol shrugs before turning, expectedly, to Hoya, “Hoya? Want to fake marry me?”

“As much fun as that sounds,” Hoya says completely deadpan, “I’d rather be fake married to Sunggyu.”

“No one is fake marrying anyone,” Sunggyu says in exasperation, “So everyone sit your asses down so we can get something done.”

“Touchy.” Myungsoo mouths to Sungjong as he nonetheless obediently gets off the table and takes a seat. Dongwoo and Sungyeol follow as Sunggyu takes his seat at the head of the table. Neither Hoya nor Sungjong move. 

Sunggyu glares at Hoya but when Hoya just shrugs he sighs and gets on with it. Finally he’s learning how to deal with Hoya - and it only took him four years.

“Our target, this time, is Kumho Airlines,” Sunggyu says without the grand flourish that is his usual trademark for revealing a client. Sungjong might be concerned about that if he wasn’t so glad Sunggyu was apparently learning to get to the point. 

The same could not be said of Sungyeol who gets to his feet with his usual arrogant posture, clicking something onto the big television screen, 

“Kumho Airlines is owned, for the most part, by Lee Haewook and Park Yangho,” Sungyeol says, flashing pictures of two men up onto the screen, “Third biggest airline in Asian by number of routes flown, fifth by number of passengers, has an insane turnover that is so hinky looking I’m surprised no government agency or tax office has picked them up yet,” Sungyeol says, “You’d think there was at least one non-corrupt government in the world.”

“The only government that has any sort of power is probably the one out of the country they’re based,” Woohyun points out reasonably - if anyone knows the civil laws of various countries it’s Woohyun. “Which is South Korea.”

“Yes, well, the point is their finances make no sense even on the surface, so they don’t even really try to hide their inconsistent profits, which is going to be good for us no matter what.” Sungyeol says crossing his arms over his chest.  

“Our client,” Sunggyu says, effectively cutting Sungyeol off before he can get too indignant, “Is the daughter of an employee of Kumho Airlines who noticed that a disproportionate number of clients were being sold tickets that later didn’t exist or were for the wrong flight or days so they had to pay extortionate prices to change them.” 

“Let me guess,” Hoya guesses sarcastically, at some point during the conversation having come over so he’s now standing behind Myungsoo’s chair (as always his attempts at being impassive falling away pretty quickly), “Instead of going to the police or something our good samaritan decided to point out the discrepancy to his boss.”

“Was this employee arrested or murdered?” Sungjong asks cutting straight to the point. 

“Arrested,” Sunggyu answers. Good, Sungjong particularly hates dealing with murderers and other violent types, “The ticketing fraud was basically all pinned on him.” 

“Right, now the ticketing fraud is basically just pennies considering all the other fraud and other miscellaneous underhanded dealings that these guys have going on,” Sungyeol says, not content to not be the centre of discussion, “But it’s a couple of million dollars, so the client is in a little bit of trouble.”

There’s a pause, the unspoken period of time that’s basically designated as the ‘speak up with any problems you have with this job so Sunggyu can ignore your concerns or forever hold your peace’ passing. Everyone looks at Hoya but he doesn’t say anything. 

“Alright." Sunggyu nods, giving Sungyeol the go ahead.

“He splits his time between Seoul and Perth,” Sungyeol starts to explain

“Okay, but where the fuck is Perth?” Woohyun interrupts. It’s a good question - Sungjong’s glad he’s not the one that had to ask it though. 

“Scotland or Australia,” Dongwoo speaks up thoughtfully for the first time (Not that Sungjong can judge as always he’s barely said anything, preferring to listen and turn things over in his mind before making any changes to his part that he needs to during the job when Sunggyu can’t stop him). “Or Canada or the US I suppose but Scotland and Australia seem mostly likely,” He says. “Probably Australia, since it’s closer.” 

“ _Where_  in Australia is Perth?” Woohyun asks again, “I’ve never heard of it,”

“That’s because you’ve never been to Australia,” Hoya says with surety that Sungjong’s not sure he can have. 

“I thought that was because there was,” Here Myungsoo twists his voice into something that you can actually  _tell_  is meant to be Woohyun’s voice (it’s eons better than his Hoya impression, “Nothing worth stealing in Australia,”

“Didn’t you know Woohyun’s had his rebirth, he’s a whole new person,” Hoya says mockingly, leaning his arms on the back of Myungsoo’s chair. 

Woohyun flips both of the off  which does nothing to dissuade them in the slightest. “Yeah,” Myungsoo continues, “It took him four years but he finally realises that he’s not stealing things for himself anymore but out of the goodness of his heart.”

“Oh,” Hoya says tapping on his chin in an over exaggerated display of thought, “Has Woohyun found his heart, good for him I was starting to think the day would never happen.”

“Enough from the peanut gallery,” Sunggyu cuts them off dryly , though it’s blatantly obvious to everyone in the room that he’s trying not to laugh and encourage them. “Most of us haven’t been to Australia, but that’s going to change.”

“Is Perth at least a city?” Sungjong can’t help but asking. He’s good at what he can do, he could steal from a fishing village if he had to, but he’s always felt more at home in the anonymity of a city - it’s harder to be anonymous in a place everyone knows each other.

“It’s the capital of the Western state of Australia,” Dongwoo says, his encyclopaedic knowledge of geography always useful, “Not as big as Seoul or Melbourne or even Daegu, but definitely a city.” 

“Population is about 2 million,” Sungyeol confirms.

“Does it have to be Perth?” Woohyun asks, tapping his fingers on the table. Understandable, the smaller the city the smaller the margin for error for all of them. 

“Well I think we all agree that we need to steer clear of Seoul for a while,” Sunggyu says directing a pointed look at Myungsoo and Hoya. 

“We told you we didn’t want to do Seoul,” Hoya shrugs casually. There’s no real heat because none of them regret The Chaser job, but it has made things more difficult.  

“So Perth is the only place we can guarantee he will be for any length of time anytime soon, and the sooner we get our client’s father out of jail the better.” Sunggyu says. No one voices any more opposition because he’s right. 

There’s a pause then, before the question that everyone has undoubtedly been thinking is asked. And of course it’s Hoya that asks it. “Why the fuck is it the Last Romeo job then?” he sounds more amused than anything - probably because he knows he’s not going to be the one playing Romeo. “Do you want Myungsoo or Woohyun to seduce a supposedly straight a middle-aged airline tycoon?”

“No,” Sunggyu says with a smirk as Sungyeol flashes a picture of a pretty young girl onto the screen, “I want Woohyun to seduce his daughter.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first scene of this chapter feels a little bit like I'm treading the same ground I've written before - especially considering the stand alone thing I published but it's sort of setting up one of the main threads of conflict without hopefully revealing too much so it's where we're starting.
> 
> Chronology wise I've gone for non-chronological for this story - for the scenes where the dates important I've given a month/the job and 90% of the time I will keep the job in chronological order. IDK if this makes sense but if the chronology is too confusing please tell me and I'll try explain or you know fix it/make it clearer.
> 
> As always you're welcome to come [visit me on tumblr ](http://infiniteleverage.tumblr.com/) to have a chat or share something or just have a look at my inspiration :)


	3. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look okay I thank my Beta every chapter and that is always relevant but she basically rewrote one of these scenes in this for me because it was utter trash and made it so much better so honestly without her this story would not exist (especially because a throw away comment from her led to my favourite plot of this fic - though I’ll be waiting a while before we get there).
> 
> Also, I think I'll update on Sunday nights instead of Monday's because my work situation has changed but knowing me that could always change again very soon, just never expect anything from me xD.

_“You know, people underestimate you.”_  
_“That’s kinda the point.”_

 

♘♘♘

PRE FLY HIGH JOB: JANUARY 2013

 

Sungjong knows the second he lands his jump that he’s made a mistake; he can feel the stabbing pain shoot through his knee causing it to buckle slightly. He doesn’t lose his footing though, so despite the sharp involuntary hiss he lets out through his teeth, it’s practically unnoticeable.

The job is pretty simple anyway, only Sungjong with Sungyeol on comms as they attempt to steal some piece of technology that Sungyeol insists he needs. He’s landed funny, twisted his knee in a way that it’s not supposed to go and now his body is protesting, it’s stupid of him; a jump he’s landed hundreds of times before, one of the simplest things he does. He’d just been careless and distracted and this time it wasn’t even Sungyeol’s fault for distracting him through the comms.

Speaking of the comms Sungyeol has unfortunately heard Sungjong’s little noise because he’s asking, “Alright Sungjong?” though he doesn’t sound particularly bothered by it.

“Fine,” Sungjong says through gritted teeth. It’s mostly as a result of the pain but he figures he talks to Sungyeol like that often enough that he won’t notice anything amiss.

“Have you got it then?” Sungyeol asks, sounding annoyed. Sungjong has never met anyone so impatient in his life, and he’s met Sunggyu.

“Yes I’ve got it,” Sungjong snaps back, regretting it a second later because he rarely lets his annoyance show in his voice and doing so is a sure-fire way to let on that something is bothering him.

Luckily Sungyeol is clearly too unobservant to notice, “Alright,” he says (and Sungjong can hear the fact that he’s eating from the relative safety of his stupid surveillance van. He can’t even have the decency to not talk with food in his mouth whilst Sungjong is out here quite literally breaking his body), “Let’s go then, job done.”

“Yeah,” Sungjong replies sarcastically, testing his leg hesitantly. It hurts, something terrible, but he can walk on it and that’s the main thing, “You worked so hard today Sungyeol.”

“Excuse me? Who disabled the security cameras so you weren’t seen? Who distracted security by setting off the sprinklers on the 17th floor?” Sungyeol scoffs in an over exaggerated fashion. Honestly Sungjong’s entire team is a bunch of drama queens.

“Who sat on his ass the whole time whilst I broke my back and risked being caught,” Sungjong retorts dryly, using the distraction of bickering to force himself to walk through the pain.

“Next time I can do the gymnastics and you can do the hacking,” Sungyeol bites back, “And then see how easy you think it is.”

“I was doing perfectly fine without you making things easier thanks,” Sungjong says. Whilst he enjoys working with the team and doing the right thing more than he thought he would, the fact remains he’d stolen things for years without Sungyeol hacking into security cameras or disabling sensors for him, “you on the other hand…”

“I stole more than you could ever hope to without leaving the comfort of my desk,” Sungyeol boasts and Sungjong finally approaches the ever so conspicuous van in the parking lot. It’s good, he’s basically able to walk now without the injury showing, though the pain is another thing entirely. “So who’s really winning.”

“Me,” Sungjong says as he opens the door of the truck and slips in, causing Sungyeol to let out an undignified yelp, “Now here’s your thing,” he says, throwing whatever Sungyeol needed so urgently that they’d had only an hour to plan ahead, taking great satisfaction in the way he squeaks and flounders in an attempt to prevent the precious device getting broken.

Sungyeol grumbles about Sungjong damaging the device and all his hacking being for nothing even as he’s hopping into the driver’s seat and getting the van started. Sungjong lets out a silent sigh of relief and stretches his leg in front of him. If he can stay off it a few days he’s sure it’ll be fine.

 

♖♖♖

POST NOTHINGS OVER JOB : MAY 2011

 

Dongwoo finds Myungsoo fascinating. In this ragtag bunch of misfits he has decided to spend his days with, there is something about Myungsoo that stands out, perhaps because it’s so very hard to pin down, and it’s nothing to do with whatever his relationship with Hoya might boil down to, no matter what the rest of the team might think.

For all that Myungsoo has decided to put down roots with the rest of the team whilst Hoya left to do whatever it was he did when he wasn’t here,  as far as Dongwoo can tell he hasn’t really opened himself up to the team very much. Surprisingly, he’s latched on to Sungyeol whom he seems to have adopted as his new best friend, and seems content to spend days practically joined at the hip with the hacker when Hoya isn’t around. Even more surprising though, is the fact that Sungyeol doesn’t seem bothered by it in the least, seemingly quite happy to have Myungsoo’s undivided attention for 80% of the day.

It’s not even that Myungsoo ignores the rest of the team, it’s just that they all know what Myungsoo’s full undivided attention looks like, and none of them are ever on the receiving end of it. 

Which is why Dongwoo is so surprised when Myungsoo tracks him down one morning when Sungyeol is nowhere to be seen.

“Dongwoo?” Myungsoo asks hesitantly, pausing a few steps in front of him.

“Good morning Myungsoo,” Dongwoo smiles brightly back at him, hoping to put him at ease. He’s noticed of course that being cheerful seems to put some members of the team off because they’ve probably spent their whole lives lacking in affection. Myungsoo seems to respond well to it though so that’s what he opens with.

“Dongwoo,” Myungsoo says again, wringing his hands together in front of him like he does when he’s nervous (or wants to convey that he’s nervous at least), “Can I ask a favour of you?”

That’s the last thing that Dongwoo expects Myungsoo to say, and the shock must show on his face because Myungsoo’s talking again, tripping over his words, “No actually sorry for bothering you, it’s okay pretend I never asked.”

“Myungsoo,” Dongwoo replies in amusement, taking a step towards him, “It’s fine, what did you want to ask?”

“It’s just, you know how to fight.” Myungsoo says, still sounding suitably flustered.

Dongwoo waits for him to continue but he doesn’t, so he nods instead, and answers, “Yes, I do.”

“Do you think,” Myungsoo says before stopping himself. Dongwoo patiently waits him out, “I mean usually when it’s just us I train with Hoya, to stay fit and make sure I can defend myself if I need to, I’m not sure I do a particularly good job of it though,” he adds with a little self-deprecating laugh, “Hoya’s still having to save my ass like three times a week,”

Dongwoo’s not sure what he’s meant to be saying in response to that so he laughs, “At least you’re doing better than Woohyun, I’d say it’s a good week if he only needs his ass saved three times.”

The giggle that Myungsoo lets out in response is gratifying, Dongwoo is willing to accept that. “You’re going to the gym now right?” Myungsoo asks when he’s calmed his giggles (it takes a considerable amount of time - Dongwoo empathises).

Dongwoo thinks his gym clothes probably gave him away, “Yeah I am,” he says, pretty sure that Myungsoo wants to join him. He’ll let Myungsoo ask himself though because he doesn’t want to scare him off: whatever this unexpected conversation will develop into, he won’t be the one to thwart Myungsoo’s attempts at connecting with another member of the team.

“Could I maybe join you?” Myungsoo asks shyly, managing to look up at Dongwoo through his eyelashes despite the fact that he’s a considerable bit taller. It’s a weird contrast to Myungsoo on a grift, him standing in the middle of the hallway in front of Dongwoo looking unsure, and for a second Dongwoo is taken aback.

Dongwoo’s not sure if Myungsoo acts shy and awkward to get people to trust him or if he is just an awkward human being who struggles to act confident when he’s acting as himself, not L or another alias. Not that it makes a difference to Dongwoo though, he will take whichever facet Myungsoo chooses to present to him and still genuinely like the person that is Myungsoo underneath it all, because deep down he gets it - it’s one of the hardest things Dongwoo does, forcing himself to _be himself_ in most situations he faces.

“Sure,” Dongwoo smiles as reassuringly as he can (it’s pretty reassuring if he does say so himself).

“I won’t get in your way or anything,” Myungsoo says earnestly, falling into step with Dongwoo as they start walking towards the gym.

“I don’t mind, you can bother me as much as you’d like.” Dongwoo tells him. That’s one thing Dongwoo misses about his old life, being able to spar and train with other people instead of on his own. Sunggyu and Sungyeol don’t even bother stepping foot into the gym, Sungjong probably trains but in freaky gymnastic ways Dongwoo would never hope to imitate, and Woohyun. Woohyun obviously does train but he likes to pretend he doesn’t for reasons Dongwoo will never understand.

“Really?” Myungsoo asks, a grin spreading across his face. It’s a contagious one that Dongwoo can’t help returning.

“Really,” Dongwoo nods.

Myungsoo sticks to his word and for most of their session in the gym, keeps mostly to himself as he runs on the treadmill. When he catches Dongwoo looking he smiles, “I’ve let myself get lazy since Hoya isn’t here to motivate me and I figure with how much time I spend running away from people in these plans it’s probably where I should start.”

Dongwoo can’t fault that logic, so he takes his boxing gloves off and move onto the treadmill next to Myungsoo. He gets another grin in return and even though they don’t talk much it’s nice.

Myungsoo must think so too because pretty soon he’s accompanying Dongwoo to the gym most days (and it only took him 10 days to stop asking and just start tagging along).

It’s a couple of days after that when he actually asks Dongwoo what he’s probably been waiting to ask this whole time.

They’ve gotten into the gym for the day, but instead of going off to the treadmill or the exercise bike or whatever else he’s decided to do for the day, Myungsoo trails behind Dongwoo as he heads for his favourite punching bag.

“Everything okay Myungsoo?” He asks in amusement since he’s learned quite quickly that waiting Myungsoo out isn’t the best strategy seeing as he prefers to be engaged in conversation rather than start it himself.

“Do you think, maybe, Hoya’s still not here and I don’t want to get rusty in my fighting, do you think you could maybe help?” If Dongwoo’s not mistaken there’s a hint of a blush on Myungsoo’s face, though that could be the light.

“You want to spar?” Dongwoo asks in surprise.

“Not spar exactly, since I’m not really good enough to spar with you,” Myungsoo says, “But maybe give me some tips or something? That’s what Hoya used to do.” He says before shaking his head and correcting himself, “Or does when he’s here, but…” he says before trailing off.

Dongwoo shouldn’t push but he can’t help himself, he loves a good harmless gossip, “But what?” He prompts.

“But Hoya’s a bit, he takes fighting and training really seriously you know?” Myungsoo asks.

Dongwoo does know, he’s never really spent that much time with Hoya but even so, he’s well aware how regimented Hoya is with his fighting and his training. “Yeah, I’ve noticed.” He gives Myungsoo the verbal response that he’s looking for.

“And I don’t like getting it wrong, with Hoya,” Myungsoo says like it’s a matter of fact and not something that most people would find difficult to admit. “I don’t like disappointing him.”

“So you want me to help you because you don’t mind disappointing me?” Dongwoo teases him gently.

Myungsoo laughs, clearly aware that it’s a joke, but the way he shakes his head is so achingly sincere, “I don’t want to disappoint anyone,” He says before pausing, “well actually disappointing Sunggyu sometimes is really funny, but mostly I don’t like being a disappointment.”

Dongwoo likes to think himself as an honest person but the frankness that Myungsoo uses to address his perceived flaws and fears is overwhelming, regardless of whether it’s a ruse or a sign of trust or just the way Myungsoo is.

“Well I tried to help Sunggyu learn to throw a punch once,” Dongwoo says to try and lighten the mood, “And that was a mess, so I highly doubt you could be a disappointment or the worst student I’ve ever had.”

“So you’ll help me?” Myungsoo asks with a bright smile.

“Of course.” Dongwoo doesn’t even have to think about it - he would help anyone who wanted to learn to defend themselves. Somehow though at Dongwoo’s agreement Myungsoo’s smile grows even wider than he thought possible. Dongwoo finally get’s when people mean when they say someone face lights up.

(Although he later realises he really hasn’t even seen Myungsoo’s face light up until Hoya comes back on the next job and compliments him on his right jab, asks him if he’s been practicing.

Dongwoo genuinely believes they could power their apartment building on the smile that evokes in Myungsoo)

 

 

♝♝♝

 

 

“Dongwoo regrets every life he’s taken,” Hoya tells Sungyeol once, over a bottle of Soju that Dongwoo had brought back from a recent trip to Korea.

Sungyeol swallows, thinks carefully, and says, “But you don’t.” It’s not a question.

Hoya drains his glass and puts it back on the table silently, “Sometimes the second it takes you to come up with a non-lethal option is a second too long.”

Sungyeol nods because he gets it. He gets it, and Hoya knows and that’s maybe why he’s been told. “The others don’t understand.”

“Some of them don’t. Sunggyu doesn’t,” Sunggyu who will never stop thinking he’s a righteous man when his morals are less defined than the rest of them, “The others probably understand more than you think.”

Hoya shrugs, and says with a tone that implies he’s perhaps just agreeing for conversation’s sake “They might understand but they wouldn’t make the call,” except for you. You’d also make that call. It remains unsaid, it doesn’t need to be said, they’re both thinking it.

“Maybe I would. Maybe there needs to be members of a team to make that call.” No maybe about it.

“Sometimes,” Hoya says, in that world-weary way of his that only shows at his most vulnerable moments, “It’s them or us.”

Sungyeol doesn’t say anything else, the conversation is over, but he drinks to that.

 

♘♘♘

 

DURING THE FLY HIGH JOB: JANUARY 2013

 

Sungjong’s injured knee is not fine.

For one thing attempting to stay off it for a few days around a slave driver like Sunggyu is nearly impossible. For another he’s pretty sure on reflection he’s done more damage than he’d originally thought. His first thought was a minor sprain, and he’s sprained parts of his body more times than he can count, but as it continues to get worse he starts to suspect he might have done more serious damage to his ligament than he first thought.

Inconvenient, but he’s sure he’s not torn it completely, so he pushes through.

Keeping it hidden from his team is another thing, especially when it’s his job to be light on his feet, flexible and athlete. That’s basically how his worth to the team is measured.

But Sungjong is good at nothing if not disappearing when he doesn’t want to be seen, so it’s relatively easy to hide the injury from the rest of the team (he’s pretty sure that Hoya has noticed but the two of them have an unspoken agreement that dates back to when they first met to not interfere unless it affects your ability to pull your weight, and Sungjong isn’t going to let it get to that point).

The fact that a bottle of painkillers appears on his bedside table one day, and a bandage in his backpack in another is kind of an overstepping of that agreement, but since Hoya never says anything about it, or makes any sort of indication, Sungjong decides to follow his lead.

He might like the fact that someone is looking out for him but not pushing him - though that’s what Hoya’s always done.

It’s what Hoya has always done, so it’s no surprise that Sungjong simply assumes the pointed gifts are coming from him.

(He does object to the leopard print physio tape - Hoya has never been as funny as he thinks he is - but when he says as much to Hoya he’s greeted with a confused look in return. Hoya’s not a bad actor but Sungjong’s always been able to see through his bullshit, so the fact that he would genuinely believe Hoya had no clue if he didn’t know Hoya is concerning.

He’s not been sleeping properly because of the pain in his knee. It’s starting to affect his judgement).

When Hoya and Dongwoo go away for a few days, Sungjong assumes the gifts are going to stop, he also assumes Sunggyu is going to be more insufferable than usual, which is why he makes himself scarce on the first day and spends most of the second day on the roof of the house, knowing that Sunggyu is never going to follow him up there and he won’t have to hide any pain he feels (never mind the fact that crawling around up there is probably just exacerbating his injury - it’s the lesser of two evils)

He’s doing fine, he’s committed and he’s managed to get himself into a position where his knee only feels a deep ache rather than any sort of acute pain. Then Sungyeol starts yelling.

“Sungjong,” he shrieks from somewhere in the house, “Get the fuck out of the vents.”

Sungjong ignores him because Sungyeol’s always yelling about something or another, trying to convince himself he’s got some sort of importance. Sungyeol must be able to tell that he’s still up there though because he’s yelling again, “I can hear you breathing up there you creeper.”

Sungjong can’t help but reply, because Sungyeol is going to keep yelling until he does, “This house doesn’t even have vents.”

“Get out of the roof then,” Sungyeol yells back, from what sounds like right below Sungjong.

“No,” Sungjong replies petulantly. Mostly because he’s not afraid to admit he’s pretty sure his knee would protest something terrible.

“Sungjong, just get out of the vents so he shuts the fuck up,” That’s Woohyun, speaking in a normal voice and yet Sungjong can still hear him. Sungyeol should take note.

Sungjong sighs but does as he’s asked, making sure to move away from them and climb down from the roof somewhere that no one can see the way he’s favouring his right leg as he scrambles down.

“Sungjong,” Sunggyu yells not a second after he’s back on level ground, “Where are you.”

“Here,” Sungjong says as Sunggyu literally rounds the corner and practically walks into him, “No need to yell,”

“Good, get ready I need you to help Sungyeol get into the 28th floor of the NoirTech building this evening, is your rig still around?” Thankfully Sunggyu is looking at some pieces of paper in his hand and doesn’t see when Sungjong physically blanches.

“No way,” Sungyeol protests straight away and very loudly. “No way you are getting me on that death trap with Sungjong.”

“Death trap?” Sungjong asks with a raised eyebrow. He doesn’t want to convince Sungyeol to do it because there’s no way he’d be able to keep hiding the injury, but if he didn’t protest that would certainly raise questions.

“That’s what I said,” Sungyeol huffs crossing his arms over his chest, “You have no sense of self-preservation and take joy in scaring ten years off our lives with that thing.” He’s not wrong, except he’s not a huge fan of being thrown up on, thank you Dongwoo.

“Sungyeol,” Sunggyu says in that tone of voice that says, if you don’t interrupt me in the next thirty seconds I’ll talk for the next thirty minutes.

Thank goodness for Woohyun.

“I’ll get you in you big baby,” Woohyun sighs, wrapping an arm around Sungyeol’s shoulder and leading him away from Sunggyu, “Honestly it’s probably less conspicuous to just walk him in the front door, and you all get the chance to watch a master at work.”

That statement causes enough of a reaction from everyone that Sungjong uses the ruckus to slip away to the library in the hope of finding something to distract his mind (and because no one but Hoya and Woohyun use the damn thing most of the time).

And if he’s surprised when he gets back to his room that evening that there’s a bright pink knee brace on the bed, well he shouldn’t be.

Hoya must have left things for Sungjong with Myungsoo - it’s the only explanation. It’s definitely crossing a line of the unspoken agreement but Sungjong’s too grateful to protest.

 

 

♝♝♝

THE BEFORE DAWN JOB : JANUARY 2011 

 

Sungyeol would like it stated on the record, on every record he can possibly find, that he thinks Sunggyu’s plan for The Dawn job is his stupidest one yet. They’re criminals, no matter what their intentions are, no matter they’re ultimately trying to help people, the fact of the matter is they break the law on a regular basis, and most of them have done so for a considerable amount of time.

Sungyeol knows for a fact that between the seven of them they have at least 16 arrest warrants across various countries (approximately half of those belong to Hoya) so that makes Sunggyu’s latest plan even stupider.

And Sungyeol is clearly not the only one that thinks that, “Let me get this straight,” Woohyun asks looking more sceptical than Sungyeol thought a human face could, “You want us to purposefully get arrested? You want us to go to jail?”

Sunggyu nods from his position sitting at the head of the table in his dining room. The whole set up is incredibly wanky, Sungyeol finds, but if Sunggyu wants to think it puts him more in control he can have the fucking tower.

“No,” Sungyeol points out dryly, closing the lid on his laptop because this is one discussion he wants to fully be a part of, “I can’t imagine that Sunggyu is going to get himself arrested,”

They all know it’s going to be Myungsoo and Woohyun. Maybe Hoya, if Sunggyu is not aware that he has an arrest warrant for murder over his head here.

“Well no, I’m not the grifter am I?” Sunggyu says as if it’s that obvious, “It will be you and L, that’s your job.”

Woohyun looks like he wants to leap across the table and throttle Sunggyu. Myungsoo, on the other hand, looks calm. Not like he’s spaced out, it’s usually pretty clear to see when he’s spaced out, but just calm.

“And what if I refuse to do it?” Woohyun asks. He’s not being petulant is the thing, he’s just asking a question, “I’ve done a lot of shit that I never thought I would do for this team, but jail is a different thing.”

“What if something goes wrong?” Dongwoo asks with a frown, “What if they’re stuck in jail?”

“After everything that we’ve done you don’t think that we could get them out in a heartbeat?” Sunggyu asks sounding annoyed. Like he sees no reason why anyone could have a problem with going to jail (maybe he doesn’t - some days Sungyeol’s sure that Sunggyu forgets they’re all actually criminals).

“Yes, well forgive me for not having so much faith in your plans,” Woohyun says dryly, “that I’m willing to go to jail for them.”He’s clearly still bitter at Hoya and Myungsoo’s intervention in the last job in Japan.

“You’re all free people, I’m not holding you here and you can walk away at any time,” Sunggyu says to them, accusation heavy in his voice.

“So that’s what this comes down to?” Surprisingly it’s Myungsoo who speaks up, “We either have to put up with your plans no questions asked or walk away from the entire crew and the good work we’re doing?”

Everyone looks on in shock. It’s the kind of comeback that Hoya or Sungyeol himself would spit back, but none of them have ever seen Myungsoo openly criticise or question anyone, much less Sunggyu.

“Everyone has their roles,” Sunggyu says, the closest to actually frazzled that Sungyeol has ever seen him. Of all the things Sunggyu could have underestimated his teams reactions to, “I don’t question how you chose to grift or how Sungyeol hacks,” as if Sunggyu had any idea how anything Sungyeol did worked, “Or how Hoya and Dongwoo punch people in the face. You could do the same courtesy and not question me.”

“Except how Hoya punches someone in the face has no effect on how you plan, how you plan fucking affects us,” That’s Woohyun now, getting up from his chair and looking murderous. “Fuck you, no I will not go to jail for you,” he accuses “so this is me walking away,” then he actually does.

Everyone turns to look at Sunggyu, but surprisingly it’s Dongwoo who says something, “You could have dealt with that so much better,” he says voice laced with disapproval before he follows Woohyun out of the room.

The other five look at each other before Sungjong, who has stayed mostly silent through the exchange speaks up, “Well clearly we’re going to get nothing done now,” he gets up as well, “So I’ll see everyone when Sunggyu inevitably calls another meeting with the exact same plan and tries to talk Woohyun around to what will probably be the same result.” He says before striding from the room without looking back.

Sungyeol takes that as his signal to leave the room, because he doesn’t want to be the last one left alone with Sunggyu, and Myungsoo follows behind him.

Only Hoya stays, rising to his feet, but he’s probably going to tear Sunggyu to pieces. Sungyeol would love to see that, but he’d also love to live so he doesn’t stop.

“You know what makes a good leader?” Sungyeol can hear Hoya ask Sunggyu as they file out of the room, “Someone who’s willing to take the same risks that he asks of his team.”

Sunggyu doesn’t respond as the door closes.

Sungyeol turns to Myungsoo, and has to ask because his curiosity is getting the better of him, “You don’t seem that bothered by the fact Sunggyu wants to send you to jail.”

Myungsoo doesn’t actually show on the surface (at least as far as Sungyeol can see, though he’s barely known the kid six months and is hardly an expert) when he’s bothered by something so Sungyeol is mostly just fishing for information.

It’s why he’s surprised when Myungsoo responds quite matter of factly, “I’ve been in much worse places than the jails in this country without a plan or a team at my back,” Myungsoo says, (it’s surprising because as far as he can see in all the research he’s done on Myungsoo’s history he’s never been anywhere close to caught).

“So why did you question him?” Sungyeol can’t help asking.

“Well, the bigger the ambition - and ego - the more likely a plan is to fall apart somewhere.” Myungsoo shrugs, sounding like he’s quoting something he has committed to memory, “It’s important to speak up when you feel strongly about something.”

“You’ve just never felt that strongly about something before?” Sungyeol asks, forever intrigued by Myungsoo - there is so much more beyond the surface than the spacey exterior he projects to the world.

“Exactly.” Myungsoo smiles brightly at him, his eyes disappearing into little laugh lines. It’s so incredibly genuine it makes Sungyeol want to return it, “Now you’re getting it.”

The door opens then and Hoya emerges, looking calmer than Sungyeol would have expected, “Eavesdropping, you two?” He asks casually, standing so close to Myungsoo that Sungyeol’s feeling the lack of personal space from across the room.

“Nah, just talking about the relationship between ego and fucking up,” Myungsoo says casually as if that’s supposed to mean something. Maybe it does, maybe it was Hoya he was quoting.

“Fair enough,” Hoya nods, before turning his attention to Sungyeol, “So I take it that you’re done for the day Sungyeol?”

Sungyeol could probably continue to work on things, he has enough information from Sunggyu from the preliminary research he does before each briefing to do a deeper dive, but right now considering everything he really doesn’t feel like it. “Yeah,”

“We were going to go back to the apartment and make dinner, you’re welcome to join us,” Hoya offers, surprising the shit out of Sungyeol. Myungsoo stands at his side, nodding his head in eager agreement.

Sungyeol’s not sure what it is, the surprise at being invited into the very insular world of Myungsoo and Hoya, the pure boredom, or curiosity at exactly how their cooking skills are that makes Sungyeol accept and leave with them.

Maybe, he just inherently knew what an important moment it would be in the grand scheme of the team.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn’t intend for this chapter to be so Sungyeol heavy but here we are so what can you do?


	4. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again (a common theme) this chapter ended up way longer than I intended but I could not decide which scene to cut so they’re all staying (& the next chapter is also finished and is less than half the length of this so I guess they balance).
> 
> Publishing this a little earlier in the day than usual but I have plans this afternoon/evening I'm about to go get ready for and not sure when I'll get home :).

_You had to be quick because you were alone. If you get caught that’s it, I get it. But you’re not alone anymore. Look…look at me…you’re not alone. You’re not. You have a team._

 

 

♙♙♙

 

Woohyun had never even considered the possibility that Hoya could have issues with people getting into his space. For one Myungsoo was forever climbing all over and clinging to him: Woohyun could count on one hand the times they’d been a considerable distance apart by choice as opposed to the necessity of the job. For another thing he spent his life fighting, something that basically involved getting right in close to people’s personal space (though in hindsight that is of a completely different context).

No one’s ever really attempted to get into his space, outside of what’s necessary for a job of course, but that’s more because no one has felt the need to (or because Myungsoo is very much in the way), not because anyone had any sort of reservations about it.

That changes one day.

Woohyun and Myungsoo are on their way out for a job, Hoya a couple of metres in front of him on his own way somewhere. Suddenly, Dongwoo barrels straight past them, heading for Hoya. He’s calling his name, but Hoya has his headphones in and clearly can’t hear him.

As Woohyun and Myungsoo watch, Dongwoo reaches out and grabs Hoya at the junction where his neck meets his shoulder (he was probably aiming for the shoulder - Dongwoo has a habit of getting overly excited with his affection and missing his mark).

“Shit,” Myungsoo swears next to Woohyun, and before he has a chance to ask Hoya goes  stiff. Then promptly freaka the fuck out. 

Dongwoo’s reflexes are fast, but Hoya’s are faster and Dongwoo is completely relaxed considering he’s in his own house with friends. So fast that Woohyun can barely see it, Hoya has Dongwoo pinned to the wall. By his neck.

It’s like a scene out of some ridiculously cliché and unrealistic movie, except it is realistic because it’s  _real_. Hoya really does have Dongwoo pinned to the wall as Dongwoo just stares at him, not  _doing_  anything to get away.

Myungsoo doesn’t seem to be about to do anything either, though he’s biting his lip in a nervous manner which is less than helpful. 

Woohyun’s fearing he’s going to have to step in when suddenly Hoya let’s go of Dongwoo and steps back from the wall. Myungsoo lets out a sigh of relief next to Woohyun.

“Sorry,” Hoya says to Dongwoo, like he hadn’t just almost  _killed_  him.

“It’s okay,” Dongwoo says, despite the fact his voice still sounds cracked from the pressure on his throat. 

Hoya nods before striding off down the hall, Myungsoo scurrying off after him with an apology thrown over his shoulder to Woohyun. 

That leaves Woohyun to check on Dongwoo. “Are you okay?” He basically demands, striding over to Dongwoo, “What the fuck was that?”

“I’m fine,” Dongwoo says, despite the fact he seems to be supporting the majority of his weight against the wall. That seems perfectly fine, “I shouldn’t have grabbed him from behind.”

“If anyone shouldn’t have done anything it was Hoya,” Woohyun says, fuming. He knows that Hoya probably had an instinctive reaction and that Dongwoo has probably faced worse but still, it’s not a sight he ever wants to see anything again. “And don’t you dare say it’s alright.”

Dongwoo pauses, as if he’s thinking about it (though he could also be attempting to catch his breath) before he shrugs, “It’s not okay but it’s probably understandable. And he apologised. And we all learned something, so no harm no foul.” He shrugs. 

Woohyun shakes his head but doesn’t push it, instead making sure Dongwoo actually is alright as they make their way from the hallway.

It does triggers something though, like now he knows it’s there he can  _see_ how opposed to people being in his space Hoya is. Myungsoo is different of course, but Myungsoo is always different. Woohyun is half convinced he could convince Sunggyu to cuddle with him given enough time (not that he can imagine anyone wanting to have a cuddle with Sunggyu).  

Apart from Myungsoo though, Woohyun now notices that Hoya has a habit of keeping a serious gab of space between himself and everyone else (outside of sparring with Dongwoo and what’s required for a grift). If someone steps into his space, he’ll calmly and without a fuss step back. If someone touches him he’ll stiffen and shrug the touch off as soon as possible without arousing suspicion. It also makes his habit of hovering and standing on the outside of every team meeting make a little more sense. 

After Dongwoo, Woohyun never sees anyone trying to touch Hoya when he’s not looking - not even Myungsoo - but he imagines if they did the outcome would be the same. He also imagines not everyone would be as calm as Dongwoo and if that happened the outcome would not be good.

Woohyun decides, after a month of watching, that it must be a trust thing. Sungjong isn’t a touchy person either, but Hoya lets him into his personal space bubble more than others, barely batting an eyelid if Sungjong jumps down off a bookcase in front of him, or brushes past him. Meanwhile he clearly cannot stand to be too close to Sunggyu no matter the situation.

It’s not like Woohyun can do anything with the information, or confront Hoya about it (there is no confrontation to be had - not liking people in your space isn’t s fatal flaw) but it helps him, just a little, in unravelling the mystery that is Hoya. His mental box on Hoya is slowly but surely filling up with information.

If only Woohyun knew how to interpret it.

 

 

♘♘♘

DURING THE FLY HIGH JOB: JANUARY 2013

 

Sungjong’s starting to think that he needs to do something about this injury. It’s not gotten better, it’s only gotten worse, and he knows part of that is down to the fact he’s not resting it. He also knows that if he told Sunggyu he was injured then he would be given time off to recover - Sunggyu isn’t heartless (or he is and just recognises that time off for the short term will improve performance in the long term). 

The problem is, admitting to injury will lead to questions about how he was injured, and then it would come out he’d been hiding his injury for almost a month. Sungjong’s dug this hole, he’s going to have deal with it himself. Or so he thinks.

 At least until he comes back to his room one evening to find Sungyeol lounging at his desk like he owns the place.  “You know, in this team full of self-sacrificing, injury hiding idiots, I thought you at least would have some sense,” Sungyeol tells him casually, as if it’s no big deal that he’s seen through the ruse Sungjong was so sure he’d been pulling off, “But no, you go and do exactly what I’d expect of Hoya or Woohyun and hide the fact you’re injured from everyone.” 

“I’m not,” Sungjong says. It’s futile, obviously Sungyeol knows, but he’s committed too hard to pretending he’s fine; he’s go to keep going. Plus maybe Sungyeol will take the hint and leave it alone.

Sungyeol doesn’t take the hint, instead he picks a cushion up off the desk (why is there even a cushion on Sungjong’s desk - he certainly didn’t put it there) and throws it at Sungjong’s knee. 

It’s a cushion, and there no way that it’s going to do any sort of damage, even to Sungjong’s knee, but he’s in so much pain and has been conditioned to think that any sort of contact on his knee is going to be painful so he steps back. With his bad knee. And almost tumbles to the floor. 

“Oh my god Sungjong,” Sungyeol darts forward as soon as he goes down (though thankfully Sungjong manages to catch himself - he’s injured but his reflexes are fine), “I didn’t mean for you to try to brain yourself you idiot.”

“Then don’t throw things at me,” Sungjong crosses his arms over his chest with a huff. 

“It’s a pillow,” Sungyeol throws his hands into the air with a melodramatic shout, “Not a rock.”

“Then why did you throw it at me?” Sungjong asks, hobbling over towards the bed and collapsing onto it, giving up all pretences of acting like he’s okay. 

“I don’t know? To prove you were injured?” Sungyeol says, though it sounds more like a question than an answer, “Honestly it was a badly thought out plan, I will admit to that, but…” then he trails off and shrugs. 

“But what else can we expect from you?” Sungjong asks, regaining his composure now his weight’s off the injury.

 “I don’t know, but I expected better from you,” Sungyeol sits back down on the chair with his arms crossed over his chest before he frowns, “No I sound like a weird hybrid of Sunggyu and my mum now, please pretend I never said that.”

“Who am I going to tell?” Sungjong asks. He’s kind of attempting to keep his injury on the down low so he can’t exactly go blabbing to anyone.

“I don’t know, someone I’m sure,” Sungyeol waves away dismissively before he turns serious. It’s not that Sungjong has never seen Sungyeol be serious, it’s just he’s never seen him be serious when it’s not in relation to a job or his technology. “Have you at least been strapping your knee?”

“Of course I have, I’m not stupid.” Sungjong says, ignoring the way that Sungyeol scoffs at him. Then something occurs to him, “It wasn’t Hoya leaving the supplies like painkillers and bandages was it?”

“I didn’t give you any painkillers,” Sungyeol shrugs which is as much of an admission as Sungjong was going to get, “But I did hope you’d take the hint.”

“I did take the hint, I’m wearing the brace, see,” Sungjong says, gesturing to his leg. In actual fact you can faintly see the brace through his pants, which is something he’s grateful to Sungyeol for even if he’ll never tell him that.

 “You could have gotten medical attention without any of the rest of us noticing,” Sungyeol points out. Sungyeol is not a logical person so why does he have to come into Sungjong’s space and be more logical than he has been. 

“I’ll just walk into a hospital shall I, ‘Hi legally I don’t exist and have no insurance of any kind but please fix the injury that I obtained undertaking illegal activities, thanks,’ I’m sure that could have only ended well.” Sungjong says sarcastically.

“I’m sure plenty of people injure their knees not doing illegal activities, I have given you at least three fake identities and I’m sure the only person that has more of their own IDs they don’t give me access to is Woohyun,” Sungyeol has the gall to actually be counting off on his fingers. Sungjong would really like to throw that pillow back at him now, “Plus we  _have_  connections I’m sure you know many people who’d be willing to patch you up, maybe for a price, but you’ve never been lacking for money.”

“People who would tell Sunggyu,” Sungjong says. He should have done something, he knows that logically, but he’s been convincing himself it’s fine and he’s got it under control. Out of character for himself, he’ll admit, but that’s a thing to be examined at a later date.

 “It’s like you’ve never been injured before,” Sungyeol rolls his eyes. When Sungjong doesn’t respond he looks at him suspiciously, “Please tell me you’ve been injured before.” 

“Of course I’ve been injured before,” Sungjong scoffs, “I’ve just never been so injured I couldn’t deal with it myself.” Except for that one incident back when he very first started out, but he had Hoya to deal with that (Howon hadn’t given him any other  _choice_ ) so it hardly counts.

“Seriously?” Sungyeol asks with a scoff. 

“Not everyone is as accident prone as you,” Sungjong scoffs right back. For the person who’s in the field the least (besides Sunggyu of course) the only member of the team that’s injured more often than Sungyeol is Myungsoo, and that’s usually because the latter’s been beaten up or kidnapped. “Some of us are good at our jobs.”

“I will hack you to the top of Interpol's most wanted.” Sungyeol says. There’s no heat in it because they both know that’s his go-to threat.

“Counter-productive to the team,” Sungjong dismisses him. 

“I called Kei,” Sungyeol tells him, swinging around on Sungjong’s desk chair, “She should be here today.”

“You called Kei?” Sungjong asks, eyes narrowed suspiciously, “I thought she was refusing to ever patch any of us up ever again,” He can distinctly remember the last time she’d had to help them on a few months ago. Sungjong didn’t think she’d keep to that next time something life threatening came up since she was too kind hearted for that, but he did think she’d be able to resist a sprained knee. 

“Yeah but everyone knows that you’re her favourite,” Sungyeol says with over the top forced flippancy, “Plus she said something about how getting to see you injured was a once in a lifetime opportunity that she wouldn’t pass up on,”

“That makes me feel like her favourite, for sure,” Sungjong says. He likes Kei, she’s a lovely person especially considering the way she was unceremoniously dragged into their world, and he’d really rather not inconvenience her. Especially considering as far as he was ware she wasn’t  _in_  the country. 

 

"She only threatened me once when I called," Sungyeol says with a small twist of his lips, "I'd consider that to be a sign your her favourite."  
  
"Or maybe  _you're_ her favourite." Sungjong says. It's a stupid comeback because Sungyeol is by far from Kei's favourite member of this team. For obvious reasons.

"I thought you injured your knee, not your brain." Sungyeol says, getting up but making sure Sungjong sees the way he's rolling his eyes. It would be hard to miss. "She should be here soon, so I'll go figure out a way to distract the others so they don't notice the medical student hanging around. But you owe me."

"I'm sure this makes us closer to even," Sungjong retorts dryly. Sungyeol scoffs as he heads for the door. Sungjong can't leave it at that though.

“Sungyeol,” Sungjong says quietly, just as Sungyeol reaches the door. Sungyeol turns to him but doesn’t say anything, “Thank you,” he says quietly, not afraid to say it when it’s necessary.

“Anytime Jjongie,” Sungyeol smiles back, not that big grin of his but the sweet little smile that Sungjong has only seen him give Myungsoo a handful of times. Then, because he’s Sungyeol, he adds as a parting shot as he leaves, “Though next time leave the flashy moves to actual Olympic gymnasts and just concentrate on getting your landing right, hmm?”

 

 

♚♚♚

 PRE-BACK JOB : JULY 2014

 

The hardest thing about Sunggyu’s job has always been choosing. Back when he was at the agency, back when it was his job to decide which cases required the most attention, he didn’t think there could be harder choices to make.

He was wrong. 

Now, on the wrong side of the law he’s doing the same thing, deciding which cases are most important, can be done, put his team at least risk, have the best outcome for the most people. Except this time there’s no other team, no other agency to pick up the cases, no supervisors to gently suggest perhaps this case was also of supreme importance. Instead it’s down to Sunggyu. Only down to Sunggyu.

 In the early days it had been easier, only a handful of clients a month actually requiring help, even fewer of those requiring long jobs instead of a simple hack or B&E job.

Since that job they pulled in Seoul though, things have gotten more hectic. Through word of mouth, somehow, people have heard of them and Sunggyu is fielding more desperate requests than he knows what to do with; certainly more than he wants to deal with. 

The easy part is weeding out what’s a legitimate request from those who just want Sunggyu’s team’s help to take down their enemies.

After that it’s hard, it’s balancing what jobs will offer the most rewards to the most people, what jobs are just too risky for his team, and other decisions and factors he doesn’t even want to think about.

 He could ask the team for help - had seriously considered asking Hoya seeing how pragmatic he was before he went and got injured, putting an end to that train of thought - but he just can’t bring himself to do it. For one thing he’s sure a lot of them would struggle with the decision - choosing whose suffering was most deserving of their help.  

For another, Sunggyu will admit that he’s not the best at reading people, but he does know that some members of his team have less than favourable feelings about him. Think him heartless and cruel and unable to put himself on the line but all too willing to risk them. He doesn’t let it bother him too much because he knows what his limitations are - where he’s going to be more of a help than a hindrance. Still he’s sure if some of them knew the amount of jobs and type of jobs he had to turn down, it would make their impression of him even more unfavourable and that’s not something the team needs.  

This team finally respects him - and each other - enough to stick to the plan for the most part. It’s taken them years but they’re at that point, so Sunggyu isn’t going to jeopardise that, make them doubt his judgement and his morals, just so that he can ease his burdens.

So instead he works long and hard, stays up late after everyone (but Sungyeol) has gone to bed and painstakingly sorts through the cases.

Once he’s decided, of course, then comes the planning. 

 That takes even longer. Before he gets Sungyeol to do his research, before he has any sort of face to face meeting with the client he takes a couple of hours to just come up with his idea, figure out what his gut is telling him is the plan to go with, figure out what information he needs from Sungyeol, who is pulling the strings, who is innocent, who is the weakest target. 

It’s a lot of work but Sunggyu’s trained to do it, Sunggyu is the one that brought this team together, the least he can do is give them a well-developed point to start from. 

He’s just about got the latest job all worked out, if he works through the night he’ll be able to get it to Sungyeol in the morning.  

The only problem is, his team keeps interrupting him.

 First it’s Dongwoo, which isn’t unexpected. Dongwoo always misses his family, Sunggyu knows, but sometimes he misses them so much that he seeks Sunggyu out. Judging by the look on Dongwoo’s face this is one of those moments.

 Sunggyu looks up from his files as Dongwoo, dripping with sweat clearly just having come from the gym, drops down on his bed. “You’re getting sweat all over my sheets.” He complains mildly.

“I’ll wash them in the morning,” Dongwoo tells him, both of them knowing Sunggyu isn’t going to sleep tonight.

“What’s the time now?” Sunggyu asks. He doesn’t wear a watch when he’s working because the passing of time is nothing but a distraction. 

 “About 11,” Dongwoo mutters, rolling over and burying his head in Sunggyu’s pillow. Sunggyu doesn’t question it, Dongwoo is just being Dongwoo (and he’s already promised to wash the sheets). 

“Huh,” Sunggyu responds, to show Dongwoo he’s listening. It’s earlier in the evening than he expected really. 

 He waits a couple of seconds to see if Dongwoo is going to say anything else, and when it (thankfully) becomes clear Dongwoo just wants familiarity and comfort he returns to work. (He’s an asshole, he’s well aware but when it comes to Dongwoo he, for obvious reasons, makes a concerted effort not to  _act_  like an asshole even if he’s thinking like an asshole). 

By his best judgement it’s about half an hour before he’s interrupted again. Dongwoo is so quiet and still on his bed that if he didn’t know better he would assume he was asleep when there’s a cursory knock on the door.

Sunggyu doesn’t have time to answer the knock though before Woohyun is flinging the door open, hands on hips, “Neither of you have eaten, have you?” 

“I’ve eaten today?” Sunggyu looks at him in confusion. Dongwoo just makes a noise that could mean literally anything from his spot on the bed.

 “You need to eat more than  _once_  a day,” Woohyun says with a long suffering sigh that reminds Sunggyu of himself dealing with this team. It’s weird, having the shoe on the other foot. “Honestly if you drop dead from malnourishment and Hoya takes over as mastermind I might go mad.”

Dongwoo waves his hand in the air in acknowledgement, Sunggyu doesn’t bother: Woohyun is going to do what he’s going to do anyway.

Sure enough Woohyun walks away and returns to the room a few minutes later, two plates in his hand. He unceremoniously dumps one onto the desk that Sunggyu is sitting at (though at least he doesn’t put it  _on_  any of Sunggyu’s paper work) before sitting down next to Dongwoo on the bed and attempting to coax him into sitting up.

“Don’t eat on my bed,” Sunggyu says, not even bothering to look at the two of them. 

 “I’m already washing your sheets tomorrow,” Dongwoo tells him quietly, leaning into Woohyun’s side as he sits, “What does it matter.”

Sunggyu gives up, there’s no point in arguing there especially since Dongwoo has a point, so instead he concentrates back on his work, the low murmur of Woohyun and Dongwoo’s voices fading into gentle background noise.

He finally finishes his work as the sun starts to rise, Woohyun and Dongwoo both asleep on his bed even though it would have only taken them 90 seconds to get to their own beds Sunggyu rolls his eyes (and tries to suppress a fond smile - they are kind of cute) as he separates his papers into two piles - one to give to Sungyeol as a basis for his research and the other to shred. 

At this point he’d like nothing more than to crawl into bed, but the thought of joining Woohyun and Dongwoo in there is less than appealing to him so instead he gathers his two piles of papers and heads out to the living space, intending to get his shredding done and maybe drop the files off with Sungyeol if he’s also stayed up all night browsing the web or whatever it is he does in his spare time 

He’s surprised to find Hoya waiting, leaning against the kitchen counter with a mug of coffee cradled between his hands. Hoya has never been an early riser, and now with his injury, Myungsoo barely lets him stand on his own. Hoya must have snuck away whilst Myungsoo was sleeping. 

“Coffee?” Hoya offers mildly when he sees Sunggyu, gesturing towards the full coffee pot sitting in the stove. 

“How long ago did you brew it?” Sunggyu asks suspiciously, reaching towards it anyway. If it’s cold he can always put it round in the microwave.

“About three minutes,” Hoya says with a knowing smile. How he’s holding his own mug in his hands then Sunggyu won’t even attempt to work out. Maybe Hoya doesn’t feel pain, that would explain a lot (except he knows Hoya feels pain, they have the recent incident to prove it).

“Thanks,” Sunggyu says, pouring himself a cup.

“So, new job?” Hoya asks conversationally, attempting to shuffle awkwardly over to the bar stools. It’s a weird sight, Sunggyu has never seen Hoya move awkwardly before in his life (speak awkwardly on the other hand is a completely different story). 

“Yes,” Sunggyu says, reaching out to help Hoya to the stools. Mostly because he doesn’t want to deal with a pouty Myungsoo if he lets Hoya injure his ankle (or prolong the injury of his hitter). 

Hoya seems surprised that Sunggyu is helping him but doesn’t reject the help (a sign he’s in real pain probably) putting down his cup before gripping onto Sunggyu’s arm, and resting more weight than Sunggyu thought he would on him. 

They say nothing more until Hoya is seated at the bar, Sunggyu sliding his mug back towards him, “Did my injury make it easier for you to decide then?” Hoya asks, looking at him steadily.

Sunggyu doesn’t know if it’s a pointed remark and Hoya knows what he tries to hide (it wouldn’t surprise him) or if it’s one of those self-deprecating remarks about his injury that Hoya has been throwing around (which also wouldn’t surprise him). “Well it makes any plans where we need a hitter to grift pretty much pointless,” Sunggyu says meeting his eyes. 

Hoya smiles a closed mouth smile at him, “Maybe Dongwoo’s improved?” He suggests in a way that suggests he thinks it’s unlikely.

“I’m sure he will have by the time you learnt to hack,” Sunggyu says. Hoya bows his head in concession.

“Who’s learning to hack?” Sungyeol asks, coming into the room looking any peppier than he has any right to considering the sun has barely risen, “Should I feel threatened.”

“Hoya,” Sunggyu answers.

“Maybe not threatened,” Sungjong says from behind Sunggyu, only slightly surprising him this time. Sunggyu has stopped trying to figure out how Sungjong  _does_  it but some days Sungyeol’s theory he can walk through walls doesn’t sound that far-fetched, “maybe just concerned for the wellbeing of your technology.”

Hoya flips Sungjong off but doesn’t say anything.

“I have a job for you,” Sunggyu tells Sungyeol since no one else is talking.

“A job for me? Do I have to?” Sungyeol asks, even as he comes over to let Sunggyu hand him the file.

“Yes, our next job.” Sunggyu says, double checking that he’s handing Sungyeol the correct file and not the file for shredding before handing it over, “I’m meeting with the client in 2 days.”

“Wow, are you sure you want to give me that much time?” Sungyeol asks sarcastically, even as he takes the file and tucks it under his arm. Neither Hoya nor Sungjong really pay the file much attention which Sunggyu is glad for - he knows both of them (Hoya’s injured but he probably could still do it) could get the file off of Sungyeol in a heartbeat. 

Thankfully Sungyeol doesn’t get a chance to work himself up into a melodramatic bout because they’re interrupted. Less thankfully it’s by Myungsoo

“Lee Howon,” he practically screeches as he comes out of their bedroom, drawing all eyes in the room to him, “What are you doing?” Myungsoo being overprotective is interesting, since Hoya is usually the overprotective one especially recently (though everyone's a bit overprotective of Myungsoo). 

“Having a conversation and some coffee,” Hoya says raising his half empty mug into the air, “why?”

“You’re still not meant to be using that ankle,” Myungsoo frowns and pouts at the same time which creates an interesting effect Sunggyu has to say, especially considering the fact he looks still half asleep.

“I’m sitting,” Hoya points out dryly.

“You didn’t teleport from bed to the chair,” Myungsoo crosses his arms over his chest walking towards them.

“Sunggyu helped,” Hoya says, which technically is true Sunggyu did help him to the stool, but he’d made his way to the kitchen all by himself. 

“Sunggyu helped?” Myungsoo asks suspiciously, coming up behind Hoya and draping his arms around his shoulders.

Sunggyu nods, “And I didn’t poison him or anything.”

“What’s your play?” Myungsoo asks suspiciously as Hoya hands his mug up to him. Myungsoo takes it with an appreciative hum. 

“Getting him to trust me so next time I have to help him I can push him down the stairs without suspicion,” Sunggyu retorts. What does Myungsoo expect him to say? 

“Who is Sunggyu murdering?” A new voice joins their conversation as Dongwoo emerges from Sunggyu’s room. 

“And who's shrieking like a bat out of hell?” Woohyun follows close behind him.

“Looks like we all missed a party last night,” Sungyeol grins lewdly at the sight of the pair of them, somehow even more sleep mussed than Myungsoo, “Where was our orgy invite?" 

Sungjong snorts, though probably at how ridiculous Sungyeol is being and not at his joke. 

 “Do you really think Sunggyu would let anyone have an orgy in his bed?” Dongwoo asks sleepily, latching himself onto Woohyun for support. Woohyun rolls his eyes but holds him steady. 

Sungyeol opens his mouth to say something but Sunggyu cuts him off because this is not a conversation he ever wants to be part of, especially when he hasn’t slept, “I don’t want to hear about anyone’s sex life.” He says, shooting certain members of his team a pointed look. None of them look particularly abashed. 

“Would now be a bad time to tell youthat last time you were away-” Sungyeol starts to say with a smirk before he cuts himself off with a pained yelp.

“Oops,” Sungjong says innocently having just thrown a spatula at Sungyeol. 

Children, he’s working with a bunch of children. 

  

 

♟♟♟ 

THE PARADISE JOB : SEPTEMBER 2011

 

It’s 5 in the morning when Hoya’s phone starts ringing. 

Howon makes no move to answer it, doesn’t even stir from where he’s lying sprawled across Myungsoo on the couch. The phone keeps ringing.

“Hey,” Myungsoo struggles to kick at Howon, considering that said man is lying all over his legs, “Answer your phone,”

“Don’t wanna,” Howon mutters, clutching at Myungsoo’s leg like it will shield him from the ringing of the phone. 

Myungsoo’s not sure how Howon seems so sleepy still since the ring tone is so piercing (he remembers Howon setting it with the explicit purpose of waking him up - it really doesn’t seem like it’s worked). Now that he’s more awake though he can identify that it’s actually Howon’s phone that’s ringing.

“Howon, it’s  _your_  phone.” Myungsoo reaches down to gently slap at his head since even mostly asleep Howon’s grip (and most of his weight) on Myungsoo’s legs is too heavy to dislodge.

 “Answer it,” His face is now literally buried in Myungsoo’s knee. If he didn’t love Howon so much he’d seriously considering kneeing him in the face.

As it is though whoever is ringing seems really determined to get through, seeing as the phone has rung out and they’ve called again three times now. Sighing, Myungsoo manages to reach over and grab the phone off the coffee table (making sure to grab the correct one of the five mobiles - they really have too many phones).

He doesn’t recognise the phone number but that really doesn’t mean much, he doesn’t even recognise his own brother’s number on the rare occasions that he calls. He debates turning the phone off, but Howon only gives out the number of this phone to very few people (Sungjong is the only member of the  _team_  that has it) so his conscience gets the better of him.

“Hello,” he says into the phone, as Howon hums in satisfaction, probably that he didn’t have to answer it (and he was meant to be the older one in this relationship).

“Howon?” There’s a girl sobbing down the line, the rest of her words lost amongst the sobs she seems to be choking on, “Howon,” she says again. 

She sounds really young, Myungsoo would be surprised if she was any older than a teenager, and he has no idea who Howon would know of that age, “No, I’m sorry this is Howon’s phone but I’m not Howon,” he says gently.

That just makes her sob harder, “I’m sorry,” she’s sobbing still so it takes his brain a few seconds to translate her words, then a few more to realise she’s talking in Japanese, “I’m sorry I can’t speak Korean who are you where’s Howon?”

Myungsoo’s brain is rushing a million miles an hour (or so it feels in his half asleep state) but then it suddenly clicks, “Momo?” He asks in Japanese. “Momo, is that you?”

Howon is wide awake instantly, snapping himself into a sitting position so quickly he almost pulls them both down onto the floor. He doesn’t though because his reflexes sometimes take Myungsoo off guard even after all this time.

“Myungsoo?” She asks, her sobs subsiding slightly but not really. 

“Yeah sweetheart, it’s Myungsoo,” he says looking at Howon with wide eyes, wondering what he’s meant to do in this situation. Not that Howon would be much better.  

Howon shrugs, mouthing at him to put the phone on speaker, “Momo, Howon is here with me too, I’m going to put you on speaker okay?” he says as slowly as possible.

“Okay,” she manages to hiccup, so Myungsoo does just that.  

“Momo,” Howon says in that steady voice of his. He’s been getting a lot of use out of it lately - more so if Myungsoo can talk Woohyun into actually talking to Howon later today, “What’s wrong?” 

“I don’t mean to be a bother, but you told me to call if I ever needed anything and I really need some help and I don’t know who to talk to and even though I think you said you left the country there’s no one else to talk to,” she rambles, words tripping over each other. Myungsoo is struggling to keep up, translating the words from Japanese in his brain whilst she’s not being the clearest, but judging by the way Howon is nodding along he’s following just fine. If Myungsoo didn’t love him so much he’d hate him out of jealously.

“It’s okay, I did say that so why don’t you tell me what’s wrong?” Howon says gently, lifting his arm so Myungsoo can curl up into him as they listen to Momo’s story.

“It’s my cram school,” she says quietly before launching into a story that has Myungsoo fuming by the end of it (and if the way he can feel Hoya’s fist clenched at his back is any indication he’s not the only one).

“Okay Momo,” Howon says when she’s finished, quietly sobbing now instead of what Myungsoo imagines were the body wracking sobs of before - he doesn’t know which is worse to listen to, “You’re right we’re not in the country right now, but as soon as we wrap up the job we’re working on right now we’re going to come to you okay?” He’s looking Myungsoo in the eyes then, asking him as much as he’s asking Momo but of course Myungsoo agrees, and he emphatically nods to show this.

“I don’t want to be a burden,” she says, even though it’s obvious she’s desperate for help if she called them.  

“You aren’t.” Myungsoo tells her, eager to at least attempt to be helpful, “It’s kind of our job now.”

“I can’t pay you,” She whispers sounding ashamed.

 “You don’t need to pay us Momo, we’re fine financially and we’re very fond of you” Hoya tells her very steadily, “You’re a smart girl, I’m sure you have your suspicions about our revenue streams.” 

“Mum told me that my imagination was too wild,” Momo confesses with a whisper.

“Yes well, how about you don’t tell anyone anymore,” Howon says in amusement, clearly trying to cheer Momo up at least slightly, “And we’ll be there as soon as we can to help you.”

“Deal.” Momo says sounding slightly more cheerful (Somehow, if Myungsoo was dealing with what she was he’d never be cheerful again). 

“Try and stay strong, okay sweetheart?” Myungsoo says, because he’s worried for her. Of course he’s worried for her. 

“I’ll try,” she says.

“And if you need to call whenever okay?” Howon offers, “We’ll pick up.” Myungsoo completely believes he will, which could lead to an interesting situation if she calls at an inopportune moment, but in their eighteen months on and off in Kyoto they’d both grown incredibly fond of the girl, regardless of the shitty situation she found herself in. He just hopes she never calls in the middle of one of Sunggyu’s rants. 

“Okay. Thank you.” She says, lowering her voice all of a sudden and speaking fast, “Okay I can hear my dad in the hallway and I’m really not supposed to talk on my phone after 10pm and I don’t want to get in trouble so thank you so much you two really are the greatest I really hope I see you soon.” Myungsoo is amazed how quickly her mood as perked up, but he supposes if at her age anyone had given him a little hope maybe he would have been the same. 

“Stay safe.” Howon tells her sternly before she’s hung up.

“Sunggyu isn’t going to like us running off to Japan,” Myungsoo tells Howon, watching the blank television and imagining Sunggyu going off on both of them for running off to Japan, like Howon isn’t MIA half the time anyway. 

“Sunggyu can go take a running jump,” Howon says emphatically, “Because this is the exact sort of case that he should be all over if he’s anything like the man he pretends to be.”

Howon is right, this is the type of case he expects Sunggyu to be all over. “If you ask he’ll probably reject it just because he didn’t come up with the job himself.” Myungsoo says bitterly. It’s probably not true but he’s justifiably annoyed at Sunggyu right now.

“Well then we’ll just do it ourselves if we have to,” Howon shrugs, which jostles Myungsoo’s head a little. 

“We haven’t done anything together in a while,” Myungsoo says thoughtfully. It could be fun. He misses it a little though he does admit working with Sunggyu’s team has been a nice luxury, having seven people to spread the work load (Six and Sunggyu to boss them around) instead of just two (though he does know their jobs now are bigger than anything he and Howon ever took on together).

“Yeah. Whatever happens we’re doing this.” Howon says, in a way that basically ends the conversation. Myungsoo doesn’t mind, there’s nothing else to say about it now. 

They sit in silence for a few minutes before Myungsoo breaks it by asking, “Do you think I should call Woohyun now?” since he’s in the right headspace for uncomfortable phone conversations, “I really don’t want to you know since I don’t enjoy being chewed out by members of my own team, but I don’t think waiting is going to change that.” 

“I think we should get to a real bed,” Howon says, standing up and offering a hand to Myungsoo.  He refuses to take it, so Howon just reaches down and pulls him to his feet anyway, “And you should call Woohyun at a more reasonable hour when he’s less likely to reach through the phone and strangle you,”

“You paint a weird picture,” He says thoughtfully as Howon tugs him through to the bedroom. 

Howon laughs and rolls his eyes at him at the same time pushing him towards the bed so that he stumbles and falls back onto it, “Go to bed Soo.”

It’s good advice. So Myungsoo does.

 


	5. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been sick all week (Virus + Inner Ear Infection) so basically all I can say is I'm glad that I was two chapters ahead because I've barely written this week.
> 
> This chapter is a lot shorter than both last week's chapter and next week's chapter - sorry about that but I feel it's important enough to deserve it's own chapter (What is that? Am I finally revealing plot? Why yes I am.What of it?). In fact original it was going to be chapter Five but for balance I switched the two.

_What's the rule?_  
_Don't bring up a problem unless you have a fix._

 

 

♔♚♔

EARLY 2013

 

There are many reasons why Sunggyu likes having his house in any given city be the team’s base of operations. For one it means that he doesn’t have to travel anywhere, he can plan from the (relative) comfort of his own home. For another it means things are done on his turf, since control of the environment is half the battle in controlling a situation.

So most of the time Sunggyu is content with his decision to base the team out of his house. Some occasions though make him think it was potentially one of the worst ideas he’s ever had, and being woken up by Sungyeol at 5 in the morning certainly makes that list.

“Sunggyu,” he bursts into the room, tablet computer clutched in his hand and frenzied expression on his face. The fact that he looks legitimately worried, and not smug like he’s pulling one of his stupid (and unfunny) pranks, is the only reason that Sunggyu levels his best glare at him instead of attempting to murder him.

That and the fact it’s too early to move. “What do you want,” He glares at Sungyeol, who’s stopped at the foot of his bed, from underneath his covers. The fact half his face is covered by the sheet and he’s barely awake means that it probably isn’t his scariest looking glare but he believes Sungyeol gets the picture.

“We have a problem,” It’s not Sungyeol that says that but rather Hoya, leaning against the bedroom door frame.

“We _might_ have a problem,” Sungyeol corrects, though the look on his face says he agrees with Hoya.

“Can this potential problem not wait till a decent hour of the day,” Sunggyu grumbles. Now they’ve brought it up of course he has to know and he has to know now, but he’s sure it could have waited.

“No.” Hoya says, pausing like the melodramatic bastard he is, “It’s SM.”

“Fuck.” Sunggyu swears, loudly. He’s justified though, and Hoya was justified in being a melodramatic bastard. “Fuck.”

“Yeah,” Hoya agrees with a wry smile, “Fuck.”

“Well then shut the door,” Sunggyu sits up, letting the sheets pool around his waist because he has work to do right now, “Does anyone else know?”

Sungyeol shakes his head, but it’s not Sungyeol that Sunggyu is concerned about spilling. “No I didn’t tell anyone,” Hoya scoffs, crossing his arms over his chest.

“But did you tell Myungsoo?” Sunggyu has to ask to be sure since that theory that Sungyeol has running about considering themselves one single being doesn’t seem that far-fetched some days.

“Myungsoo is somebody,” Hoya rolls his eyes, shutting the door as asked and leaning against the wall, “So no I didn’t tell him, as soon as we found proof we came to tell you.”

Sunggyu sighs and rubs at his forehead. He’s not exactly sure what they’re dealing with here but if it involves SM then it cannot be good. “Okay, what is SM doing?” he asks, needing to know the basics.

“Looking into us,” Sungyeol says grimly.

“Shit,” Sunggyu can feel the headache coming on. When he started this whole thing he never, ever intended it to get so big that SM would take notice of them. That can only end badly for them.

“Alright,” He says, hauling himself out of bed and heading for the table he keeps in his room for situations when he has to plan or has an idea in the middle of the night. He only has two chairs but somehow he thinks Hoya would stay standing even if there were enough chairs, “Start from the beginning,” He says, taking a seat.

“Hoya approached me a couple of days ago,” Sungyeol takes the other seat, gesturing towards Hoya who has walked closer to them and is now leaning against the wall instead of the door, “And asked me to do some discreet digging.”

“An associate of mine contacted me, about a week ago,” Hoya explains, steadfast as always. Honestly apart from his terrible (and unfortunately increasingly more frequent) attempts at humour, Sunggyu doesn’t think he’s ever seen Hoya uncomfortable or thrown off guard. Angry, yes, but Sunggyu gets the feeling his anger has always been contained, the closest he’d ever come to losing it the time Woohyun got drugged. And that incident during The Chaser job of course.

Sunggyu’s not an expert in people though, and Hoya is an enigma, so he could be wrong. It’s unlikely with how observant he is, but he will admit the possibility.

“She said that she’d heard whispers that we’d caught SM’s attention with The Chaser job we did last year, on their turf.” Hoya emphasises it like Sunggyu needs any reminding that Hoya wasn’t particularly impressed with that aspect of the plan from the start. “I got in contact with a couple more people, and at least two other people had heard the same which was enough for me to verify it.”

“So he asked me to look into it,” Sungyeol says, picking up the story.

Sunggyu frowns, “Why didn’t you bring it to my attention straight away?” He asks. He’s the leader of this team, and he should be the first person to know about any sort of threat.

Hoya scoffs, “Do you know how many pieces of gossip I hear through my web of contacts a day?” he asks condescendingly, “If I brought everything I thought might be a threat to you then you’d spend all your life worrying about those and no time actually doing what we’re all here to do.”

Sunggyu resents the implication that he can’t multitask, but decides to leave that well enough alone, “This is SM though,”

“Right but the other week I heard that Gyuri’s crew was interesting in moving up here into London, which turned into nothing since they popped up in Berlin so not everything is true,” Hoya says. Something about Sunggyu trusts him to be able to ascertain the level of a threat, “Besides if I’d come to you with no information what would you have done? Told Sungyeol to research it as we wrapped up the last job and distracted yourself? There was no point.”

Sunggyu purses his lips but decides to let it go, he can’t fault Hoya’s reasoning, “I take it then, since you’re here, that Sungyeol found something.”

“They’re really looking into us,” Sungyeol says, chewing on his lip which is a habit Sunggyu has literally never noticed in him before, “Not just a passing interest either, who we are, our histories, any job that we’ve potentially ever been associated with together or apart.”

“How much have they found?” Sunggyu asks grimly.

“I mean there’s no way to know for sure,” Sungyeol says, “Especially considering they could have talked to people in person which of course leaves no online trace,” he says looking for all the world like he can’t understand why someone would actually talk for information instead of just hacking it online. Kids these days.

“Okay, what do you know for sure they’ve found?” Sunggyu cannot believe he has to rephrase the question but if he wants answers this century it’s what he has to do.

“Well they know everything there possibly is to know about The Chaser Job, they’ve basically attributed every job that we’ve pulled to us except the Paradise one and the White Confession one.” It doesn’t surprise Sunggyu that they’re the two they’ve potentially missed since they were the jobs that were most different to what they usually pull.

“That’s not particularly impressive though,” Hoya speaks up, apparently having the same thought as Sunggyu, “If you know what you’re looking for it’s easy to find a pattern to our jobs, especially since we generally stick in the same geographical area for a while. Easier to track and trace that way.”

Sunggyu bristles slightly at that because he can hear the disapproval in Hoya’s words. Smug bastard should try doing what Sunggyu does, dealing with the actual clients and getting them to trust him, and then see how hard it is even staying in a location for a while let alone whilst moving across the globe at a moment’s notice.

“It’s a statement of fact,” Hoya says to him, so clearly Sunggyu hasn’t kept his feelings of his face, “not a criticism.”

“Yeah, and if you two could stop this stupid pissing contest,” Sungyeol speaks up, displeasure twisting his face, “We kind of have an important problem presenting itself.”

“Okay, they know that one crew pulled all those jobs,” Sunggyu says, focusing on the problem at hand, “They’ve got to know more though. Do they know about us? Our clients?”

“From what I can tell,” Sungyeol continues to chew on his lip, “They don’t know about our clients or why we do it, they seem to just think we’re targeting the usual rich people, but you know harder targets than usual.”

“We can’t know that for sure though,” Hoya points out ever the pessimist (or potentially though Sunggyu will never admit it a realist), “We don’t know what they know. We have to be prepared.”

“True, but they haven’t gone looking into any of the clients so far as I can see, and that’s something you’d need to start online,” Sungyeol says. Sunggyu relaxes, just slightly. Just because the clients seem in the clear for now, doesn’t mean his team is safe.

Most of the clients have his contact information though, a phone he has set up solely to give the number out, and he’s sure if they’d been approached and asked about Sunggyu they’d let him know.

“Okay, so the clients are safe for now. What about us?” Sunggyu asks the question that really matters here.

Sungyeol and Hoya exchange a look that is not reassuring. “They know the basics of most of our identities, our names, ages those kinds of things. Except for Hoya and Myungsoo - they just know Hoya and L.”

Sunggyu doesn’t find that particularly surprising - if Sungyeol hadn’t been able to find them initially then he doesn’t think SM will be able to.

“It’s different for all of us,” Sungyeol continues to explain, “For example I don’t think Woohyun cares if they know any of his real history, whereas they only know about Sungjong what Sungjong wants them to know.”

Sunggyu purses his lips, “Okay what about Dongwoo?” He asks, since he’s pretty sure his own dad can take care of himself, if Sunggyu actually cared. Dongwoo’s family, on the other hand, is a target he wants SM nowhere near.

“His family is safe, it took a lot of effort on my behalf by the way like a lot, but about a year ago I basically erased all connections I possibly could between them. I mean theoretically they probably could go and get a copy of his birth certificate or something but there’s nothing I can do about that. They’re probably not going to go that far anyway.” Sungyeol explains.

Sunggyu never asked Sungyeol to do that and he’s almost positive that Dongwoo wouldn’t have even thought of asking either so Sungyeol must have taken the initiative. He knew there was a reason, despite all his bitching and moaning, he’d chosen Sungyeol in the first place.

“Alright, well then what’s the issue? Besides the fact they’re looking into us, you both look too nervous for it to be that,” Sunggyu says matter-of-factly. If they could just tell him all the pertinent information straight up it would certainly make this twenty times easier.

“Well they pretty much know everything about me already,” Sungyeol admits looking unbothered, but the uncomfortable shrug he gives sort of gives him away, “Because I might have almost hooked up with them in my youth.”

“Fuck.” Sunggyu can’t help swearing. He did not know that. “What happened.”

“Nothing much really, they approached me to join one of their weirdly rigid teams, I considered it because the money is really good and their contacts are insane - seriously they have the police of half of East andSoutheast Asia in their pockets.” Sungyeol explains, refusing to look either Sunggyu or Hoya in the eye for the first time ever, although Hoya looks so incredibly unruffled that Sunggyu supposes he already knew this.

“So why didn’t you?” Sunggyu asked.

“I just couldn’t stoop to their level, they have no morals,” Sungyeol says with a straight face.

“You mean you couldn’t handle having to follow someone else’s rules, especially an ‘organisation’ as strict as SM.” Hoya scoffs from his position in the corner.

“Well, I mean that as well,” Sungyeol shrugs shamelessly, “That was my reason at the time, but I’m glad I didn’t join up with them in the end because I do have some level of conscience.”

“Maybe they undergo procedures to remove their feelings and you know human emotions the same way they all get the same face,” Hoya suggests. It’s probably one of his terrible jokes but honestly Sunggyu can’t tell at this point because it wouldn’t surprise him if it was true. Then he turns serious, “Did they just let you get away?” He asks sceptically.

“No, I might have moved to Scotland to escape their reach,” Sungyeol admits a bizarre combination of indignant and ashamed, “Until they forgot about me, covered my tracks, been very paranoid until I realised they recruited Kai and weren’t actively looking for me anymore.”

“So it’s not going to be a problem?” Sunggyu asks.

Thankfully Sungyeol finally gives him a straight answer. Or as much of a straight answer as can be provided in this situation, “I don’t think so. You never know with SM but they don’t know anything about me that can be used against me. Honestly there isn’t much out there to be used against me.” It’s said matter-of-factly, but Sunggyu always feels a twinge of sympathy when he thinks about how easily Sungyeol had accepted being essentially alone in the world.

“Alright. So besides looking into us for now there’s no signs that they’re actively planning anything?” Sunggyu asks.

“Well they’re sure as fuck not looking into us so they can send us their mother’s kimchi recipe,” Hoya snarks at him, “They’re planning something.”

“Well it’s obvious that they’re planning something,” Sunggyu rolls his eyes, he’s not stupid, there are just more important things to focus on right now, “But until they do there’s not much we can do. All we can do for now is continue to monitor the situation,” He decides

“By we monitor the situation you mean I monitor the situation, right?” Sungyeol asks with a groan, “Because it’s not like I do twice as much work as anyone else around here anyway.”

“Build a bridge and get the fuck over it,” Hoya scoffs. Sunggyu’s not an expert but he seems to be in a particularly bad mood for some reason today. “I’ll keep my feelers out, see if anyone’s heard anything about what SM is planning,” Hoya offers.

“Okay. There’s not much else we can do,” Sunggyu hates being inactive and waiting for things to happen, it’s why he decided to basically do a U-turn with his life over the last three years,“so in the meantime don’t tell the others.”

Both Sungyeol and Hoya look at him in disbelief, “You seriously want to keep this from them?” Hoya asks sceptically, never one to hold his tongue if he disagree with Sunggyu (it’s potentially his most annoying habit), “Because there’s no way that could end badly.”

“If SM is coming after us they have the right to know.” Sungyeol agrees, voice more level than Hoya’s.

“We don’t know SM is coming after us. The second we get any sort of sign they’ve actually made a move we’ll tell them.” Sunggyu says. He’s not that cruel, “But until then there’s no point in worrying or distracting them.” He doesn’t want any of his team distracted, but Sungyeol and Hoya are without argument the two members of the team most able to compartmentalise.

“They’ve all got their own networks of contacts and allies,” Hoya points out. They’re not as extensive as Hoya’s Sunggyu knows, though if someone else catches wind he imagines they’ll also bring the news to him and they can deal with it then, “They’re going to find out.”

“We’re not stopping them finding out, we’re just not telling them,” It shouldn’t be that hard to figure out.

“This is going to end badly,” Hoya repeats, “We’ve already had one cluster fuck with serious consequences when you didn’t share all pertinent information with every member of the team,” he says pointedly. Sunggyu cannot believe he’s bringing the Paradise job up here, they’re completely different situations and circumstances, “But, you’re the boss.”

“Yeah, you’re the boss,” Sungyeol agrees sarcastically.

Sunggyu’s not sure he’s going to be able to get much more than that out of them, and it is an agreement if grudging (though he really isn’t sure Hoya won’t just leave here and tell Myungsoo straight away).

“Alright, if that’s all you can both get out of here,” Sunggyu sighs, wanting nothing more than to just go back to bed but knowing he can’t do that, especially with both of them still in his room.

“Okay.” Hoya pushes off the wall and heads towards the door, Sungyeol getting up to follow him, “Just know this decision is all on you and we both oppose it.” Hoya has to get the last word in.

The decisions are almost always all on Sunggyu though, that’s the price of being the de facto leader, or mastermind as Sungyeol sarcastically calls him, of this rag tag bunch of opinionated misfits.

“Duly noted,” Sunggyu says dryly as the two of them leave the room.

Before they close the door, Sunggyu can hear Dongwoo asking why they’d been in Sunggyu’s room. He holds his breath, wondering if they’re going to defy him not even five minutes after agreeing, but much to his relief Sungyeol starts to spin some ridiculous story about pranking him.

Sunggyu only breathes a sigh of relief when Hoya pulls the door closed, dropping his head into his hands.

They’re so fucking stuffed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again I don't think anyone will take offence at making SM the villains but I feel the need to disclaim no shade anyway because honestly if you need a big shady evil corporation in Kpop who else can you use even without the whole 2013 merger drama?


	6. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is, quite long, to balance the last one but also because I couldn't decide which scene to cut. With the exception of one, they're all quite ... heavy and I'm not completely satisfied with it especially Myungsoo's POV but it's better than I remembered it being when I finished it so let's count that as a win.
> 
> Updated the chapter count, it's still a rough guess but there's no way this is going to be only 15 chapters (since I already have the first 11 mostly plotted) and it's very likely it'll get over 20.
> 
> Also obligatory shout out to my gorgeous beta who got this edited at like 5am in the morning her time after a pretty ... intense week so like seriously I don't know what I do to deserve her

_“We do things they can't. Won’t.”_  
_“Does that make us bad?”  
_ _“It makes us... us. Now, you can take that as a gift, or you can take it as a curse. And that's up to you.”_

 

♟♟♟

THE LAST ROMEO JOB : MAY 2014

 

Myungsoo is sitting on his bed with his back against the headboard, Howon’s head pillowed in his lap, body running perpendicular to Myungsoo’s. They’re leaving for Perth in two days and this is probably the last moment of calm they’ll get before the flurry of a job underway hits. 

Howon’s earphones lie discarded around his neck, a book of Myungsoo’s next to him on the pillow. They’d been doing their own things in the same space before inevitably getting caught up in conversation (one of the silliest most inane conversations that Myungsoo has had in a while. Which is what 80% of conversations with Howon are because contrary to popular belief he is the biggest dork that Myungsoo has ever come across).

There’s a knock on the door, distinct but more hesitant than one would usually expect. Plus whoever knocked doesn’t just come bursting in - so it’s not Dongwoo or Sunggyu, and they’re using the door so it’s not Sungjong. Which leaves Sungyeol or Woohyun.

Howon looks up at Myungsoo and shrugs, Myungsoo sighs but nods and then Howon’s calling out, “Come in.”

The door swings open and it’s Woohyun standing there because of course it is. “Are you busy?” he asks. 

Howon and Myungsoo share another look before Myungsoo shakes his head, “No, come in.”

Woohyun does so, shutting the door behind him before strangely enough sitting on the floor by Howon’s feet. He doesn’t say anything else, just pulls his tablet out and starts flicking through it.

Myungsoo gives Howon a questioning look because he’s usually more likely to understand why Woohyun is the way he is. Howon just shrugs unhelpfully again, clearly having no more of a clue than Myungsoo does, before he puts one of his headphones back in. They’re not going to force Woohyun to talk, when he clearly has something on his mind that he’s building to, but they’re also not going to continue their private conversation no matter how silly it is with Woohyun in the room. 

Instead Myungsoo reaches to run his fingers through Howon’s hair. He sighs, never failing to be relaxed by the action as he rests his head against the wall and closes his eyes. It’s nice, the silence, relaxing and companionable and he’s dreading the moment that Woohyun is going to work up to saying whatever it is he’s come to say.

Myungsoo loses track of time, but eventually there’s a hand over his, which makes him open his eyes. Howon has laced their fingers together, before using them to gesture towards Woohyun. 

Myungsoo nods. Clearly Woohyun isn’t going to start talking himself so they’re going to need to encourage him. 

Howon stretches his leg out and taps Woohyun on the shoulder with his foot. Woohyun doesn’t jump or anything, he’s too good for that, but Myungsoo can see the way his shoulders stiffen at the unexpected touch.

“Are you touching me with your foot?” He asks Howon. He’s going for incredulous but it’s not particularly convincing. 

“I’m wearing a sock,” Howon wiggles his toes in Woohyun’s face. Woohyun scoffs and bats Howon’s foot away with his hand. They’re both idiots so Myungsoo can’t help but giggle at them. 

“I can still smell them through your sock,” Woohyun scoffs, shuffling away from Howon’s foot with a look of disgust on his face. Howon just smiles in an incredibly self satisfied way as he pulls his legs back up onto the bed.

“Oops,” Howon says with a smirk, sitting up. Myungsoo tries not to whine at the loss of contact, he was very comfortable where he was with Howon as his human blanket. 

‘Big baby’ Howon mouths at him with a fond smile as he moves to sit next to Myungsoo. He crosses his legs so that his knee is resting on Myungsoo’s knee and that’s slightly better - at least they’re touching. 

Myungsoo is thinking they’re going to have to point blank ask Woohyun what’s up (which is a risky move and could go very wrong) when he finally speaks up.

“This girl, the daughter that Sunggyu wants me to seduce. She’s a lot younger than me,” he says, as he turns the tablet around to show them the picture. She does look awfully young, Myungsoo thinks.

“How young?” Myungsoo can’t help but ask since he’d not even thought to look at that detail, hasn’t really looked into her at all since she’s not his assignment. 

“September ’94,” Woohyun says quietly, dropping the now dark tablet into his lap. That is quite a bit younger, around six or seven years Myungsoo would say (Woohyun has never actually told them how old he is, but only Sungyeol and Howon know Myungsoo’s birthdate so he can’t pass any sort of judgement). 

“Come sit,” Myungsoo says, tapping the bottom of the bed with his foot before pulling his legs up so there’s enough room for Woohyun, “You’re making me uncomfortable just looking at you on the floor.” Howon nods in agreement.

“I didn’t want to invade your space,” Woohyun says, as if that’s stopped him before, “It’s not my bed.” 

“It’s not Sungyeol’s bed and yet he has no trouble just laying all across it,” Howon scoffs. That is very true, Howon has a point, though Sungyeol loves to make really loud comments about what kind of activities they get up to on the bed.

Woohyun laughs as he pulls himself up and sits on the bottom of the bed. There’s a very slight hesitance as he does so, one that Woohyun manages to hide quite well, but Myungsoo has spent eight years observing body language and more than four years observing Woohyun so he sees it.

Once Woohyun is settled, Howon and Myungsoo share a look not sure who is going to start. Eventually Myungsoo sighs and looks back at Woohyun, “She’s six years younger than you,” he prompts. 

“Yeah. And I think that makes me uncomfortable,” Woohyun says with a frown. Personally Myungsoo doesn’t know how he thinks that makes him uncomfortable - either it does or it doesn’t - but that’s not helpful so he doesn’t say it. 

“Why?” Howon asks simply. 

“Seducing anyone’s daughter to get to them isn’t something I think is particularly okay,” Woohyun says, looking down at his hands, though his resume would say otherwise, “but especially when she’s so young. She probably had nothing to do with what her father’s doing.” 

“She probably profited from it though?” Myungsoo suggests, because logic is what he always uses to rationalise his conscience. From the way Woohyun shakes his head and the look Hoya gives him it probably wasn’t the right thing to say.

“Even if she did profit or participate, I don’t know I’m okay with seducing someone so young. She’s only a university student, it makes me feel uncomfortable, like a creepy uncle.” Woohyun confesses, looking at them with imploring eyes as if begging them to understand. (It’s a good thing Myungsoo did stick his foot in it then if it got Woohyun to admit his real issues straight away instead of the time-wasting, circle-talking he was so inclined towards).

“You are a creepy uncle,” Howon clearly cannot help himself. Myungsoo tries not to laugh into his hand as Woohyun glares at Howon. He’s not helping, but Myungsoo is amused anyway.

“Okay, sorry,” Howon puts his hands up in a placating manner, “Not the time.”

“Never the time,” Woohyun mutters under his breath. Myungsoo would like to disagree there but he is right that now is not the time.

“Do you, not want to do the job?” Myungsoo asks hesitantly. For all that he’s excellent at reading strangers, and he’ll own up to that, when it comes reading people he’s close to he starts to second guess himself. It doesn’t help that he spends his day with some of the most complicated and confusing people on the planet - Woohyun the most enigmatic of all. 

“We have to do the job,” Woohyun says in frustration, “And Sunggyu is right, the daughter is the only route that will get us access without at least six months of long, hard work before we can ever get started.” Woohyun’s hands flutter a little helplessly as he speaks, punctuating his words, before he lets them drop in his lap resignedly.

“Do you want me to do it then?” Myungsoo offers. Maybe that’s the reason Woohyun came to them, to ask Myungsoo to switch. He looks to Howon to see if Howon’s come to the same conclusion, but the way he’s frowning suggests maybe he hasn’t.

“What?” Woohyun looks up at Myungsoo in shock. Okay, that’s clearly not what he was angling for, “No, I wouldn’t ask you to do that for me,” Woohyun shakes his head emphatically. 

Myungsoo doesn’t want to tell Woohyun that he never even considered the girl’s age before this conversation, wondering if it’s one of those things people who are good just all agree on. Wondering if Woohyun will judge him if he admits as much. The risk is high enough he stays quiet since he doesn’t want anyone on the team - especially Woohyun - to look down on him. 

“I’m offering,” Myungsoo says instead of letting Woohyun know what he’s thinking. Howon squeezes his knee.

“No, it’s okay.” Woohyun shakes his head, “I’ll, deal with it, I just wanted to…” he trails off looking so frustrated it hurts Myungsoo.

Howon and Myungsoo, without needing to confer or even look at each other, shuffle apart so there’s a Woohyun spaced gap between them on the bed.

Woohyun looks at it in hesitation before Myungsoo sighs and pats the bed, “Come here.” He orders, feeling silly. Like he’s talking to a dog or something. 

Thankfully Woohyun doesn’t argue and instead shuffles up the bed until he’s sitting comfortably between the two of them. It’s not surprising exactly since as much as Woohyun pretends to be above it he craves physical contact as much as the next person (more than perhaps anyone except Dongwoo and Myungsoo himself).  Some days Woohyun rejects contact though - whether because he feels like he doesn’t deserve it or out of some misguided attempt to keep everyone away Myungsoo wouldn’t want to guess.

“I just wanted someone to know,” Woohyun says once he’s settled between them, “That I’m not comfortable with it.” 

“I guess you just have to remember that it’s not you,” Myungsoo says. It’s really bizarre to be giving Woohyun this advice because Woohyun is usually the one nagging Myungsoo about how important it is to keep himself and his ‘characters’ separate. 

“I’m doing it though. Because even if I’m acting I’m the one that’s going to be doing it you know? Like you can’t murder someone and then say oh it’s fine because I was acting, I was doing what I had to do.” Woohyun says, sounding like he’s getting more and more worked up.

Myungsoo thinks they’ve found Woohyun’s line in the sand. The line like consent for Howon. “You’re not going to murder anyone,” Howon scoffs, “Don’t be dramatic.” He sounds like he’s being sarcastic but there’s that edge in his voice, the one that Myungsoo privately calls his ‘Scary Dark Past’ voice. 

“And you don’t actually have to do anything with her,” Myungsoo hastens to add, grabbing onto Woohyun’s hand in a show of support. The way Woohyun squeezes in return reassures him that Woohyun got the message, “Just make yourself into, you know the unobtainable older crush that all young adults have.” Or so Myungsoo hears, having never actually gone through one himself.

“It’s leading her on,” Woohyun says in a small voice, but he sounds less conflicted.

“Leading her on, all things considered, is really not that bad,” Howon says matter-of-factly, “Especially when you consider the number of people her age who have been adversely affected by her father’s actions. Our client whose dad was arrested for trying to do the right thing is her age.” Howon points out.

Woohyun sighs, laying his head on Howon’s shoulder, “Is it right that we’re punishing her for the sins of her father?”

“You know that’s the way the world works sometimes Woohyun,” Howon says. It’s not particularly reassuring but Howon only sugar coats things when it’s really necessary or really bad.

“I have never met someone so staunchly utilitarian before,” Woohyun scoffs.  Woohyun says that to Howon frequently, yet Myungsoo hasn’t worked out yet if he means it as an insult or not. 

“You can’t save everyone,” Howon says, resting his head on top of Woohyun’s. Not to be outdone, Myungsoo squeezes Woohyun’s hand again before curling up into his side.

“Profound words coming from you,” Woohyun laughs. Myungsoo nods along eagerly, jostling Woohyun’s shoulder which makes Woohyun laugh harder.

“You’re a mess Myungsoo,” Woohyun says teasingly, wrapping his arm around Myungsoo’s shoulders.  

“Yeah,” Myungsoo agrees shamelessly, “But aren’t we all?”

 

 

♖♖♖

2014

 

Dongwoo has never once regretted, not for a single second the day that he made the decision to follow Sunggyu’s mad scheme to settle injustices the law couldn’t or wouldn’t.

He doesn’t regret the fact that he met the rag tag group of thieves that Sunggyu brought together (physically - he’s not so blind to his friends faults that he can’t see that the person who pulled them together was never Sunggyu) since he’s grown to love them all. They’re like a family. 

Family though is where his one regret does lie.

Sunggyu and Dongwoo went into this whole life of crime thing blind. Despite the fact they’d spent most of their early careers chasing criminals they’d really had no understanding of the realities that came with being on the wrong side of the law.

It’s why they didn’t take precautions to protect their identities. It’s why there are now warrants for their arrest in at least four different countries. It’s why they didn’t think to shield their families. It’s also why they haven’t seen their families in years.

Sunggyu struggles slightly with it, but Dongwoo’s pretty sure at this point he’s just accepted it. Sunggyu was never particularly close with his family. 

Dongwoo on the other hand, his family was his world, so not being able to talk to them, to phone them or ring them or even email them without ridiculous precautions facilitated by Sungyeol is hard.  

Most of the time Dongwoo can push it out of his mind, cling a little harder to Myungsoo, or tease Sungyeol, or squeeze Hoya’s butt to remind himself that the family he’s found here is good, that the work they’re doing for other people’s families makes it worth it.

Right now though is not one of those times. Not when Sungyeol has forwarded him an email today about the birth of his niece. Apparently she’d been born over two months ago but the email hadn’t gotten to him until now and who knew when he’d be able to actually see her. It could be years. It could be never.

He can’t pretend to be cheerful right now, but he doesn’t want his team to worry. Instead he shuts himself away on the roof of their building 

It takes longer than he expected for someone to come looking for him (since they’re in the middle of a job and all) but when they do come he’s not surprised that it’s Sunggyu. 

“What’s up,” He asks simply, shutting the roof entrance door behind him and standing over where Dongwoo is laying, looking up at the sky. 

“I’ve never even properly met her and I miss her,” Dongwoo says, boiling his thoughts down into their simple core.

“I have no idea who you’re talking about,” Sunggyu says looking down at him. Dongwoo isn’t surprised, his friend is one of the most analytical people he knows when it comes to some things, but when it comes to human interactions he’s basically flying blind.

“I have a niece,” Dongwoo tells him.

“Oh, congratulations to your sister,” Sunggyu says, sitting down on the ground next to him. It’s a very un-Sunggyu move - to sit on the dirty floor - so Dongwoo appreciates it. 

“I’ll let her know you said that next time I get a message to her,” Dongwoo says wryly, “It could be months.”

“I’m sure it won’t be,” Sunggyu says. They’re empty words.

“It’s frustrating. I might not see her for years, see her ever all because we were reckless four years ago.” Dongwoo muses.

“Do you regret what we do?” Sunggyu asks, and Dongwoo full well knows that he expects Dongwoo to say no. He doesn’t regret it of course, but one of these days Sunggyu is going to ask him a question and his answer is going to be a surprise. 

“I don’t regret what we do,” Dongwoo says picking his words very carefully, “I regret that we were so careless when we started and I regret that our families suffer for it and I regret that I might never be able to see my family again.” 

“You could go and see them,” Sunggyu suggests, thinking face on, “I’m sure between the six of us we could get you-” 

“No,” Dongwoo cuts him off more harshly than he intended. He’s very determined about this though. “No.”

“Why not?” Sunggyu asks looking genuinely confused, for the first time Dongwoo can remember in a long time. He can’t really take a moment to appreciate it though because he  _needs_  to make Sunggyu understand.

“Because, especially with SM still around, any time I even end up in the same city as them, even by coincidence or for another job I’m putting them at risk. Being associated with them is putting them at risk and that’s not something I’m willing to do.” Dongwoo says, sitting up so that he can look Sunggyu in the eye and show him how serious he is.

“Your family are  _so_  important to you though.” Sunggyu says.

“They are,” Dongwoo agrees fiercely, “And because they’re so important to me I’d rather never see them again than even think of putting them in harm’s way.” That’s a line he’s not willing to touch with a ten foot pole. 

“I’m sorry,” Sunggyu whispers, pulling Dongwoo into a fierce hug. 

Dongwoo knows he is. Knows he never intended for this to happen. Knows it’s not Sunggyu’s fault because it’s not his family and Dongwoo should have been more careful. He always gets kicks out of when Sunggyu reluctantly apologises. Not this time though because it’s not his fault. Typical Sunggyu, only admitting fault when it’s not actually his fault.

There’s no point in telling Sunggyu this though so Dongwoo just sighs and tells him, “I know.”

 

♟♟♟ 

THE LAST ROMEO JOB : MAY 2014

 

“Do you think we helped Woohyun?” Myungsoo asks later that night when Woohyun has left the two of them to their own devices (Sunggyu had summoned him for some reason or another. All Myungsoo knows is it’s better Woohyun than him).

“Woohyun doesn’t always listen to logic,” Howon says looking as if he’s seriously considering the answer to the question, “He’s very … stubborn,”

“Says you,” Myungsoo snorts. 

“Hush,” Howon reaches out to flick Myungsoo on the forehead, “He seemed more relaxed though, so I like to think we helped him,”

“I hope so,” Myungsoo confesses, laying his head on Howon’s shoulder in the same spot as Woohyun before him.

They sit in silence for ages, a silence that’s comfortable as it always is between them, but there’s something weighing in it. Thoughts weighing on Myungsoo’s mind and clearly Howon can tell.

Eventually though Howon gets tired of waiting him out and asks him, “What’s on your mind?” 

“Nothing,” Myungsoo answers in a knee jerk reaction before pausing, “Something. I don’t know if it’s important.” 

“If it’s making you frown like this,” Howon reaches out to press a wrinkle out of his brow. Myungsoo hadn’t even been aware he was frowning, “It’s got to be  _something.”_  

“I don’t know how to say it,” Myungsoo says, sitting away from Howon because he doesn’t want to get distracted from his point. Because sometimes words come harder to him now.

“Try?” Howon suggests calmly.

“You and Woohyun,” Myungsoo says in frustration. Frustration at himself for not being able to say it, frustration at Howon for making him talk. “You both have these lines, these things that you’re not willing to do, the compromises you’re not willing to make. I don’t. I don’t  _have_ those.”

“I’m sure you do,” Howon says soothingly. 

“I don’t though,” Myungsoo says angrily, words not coming out the way they should “I don’t have things I know I won’t do, does that mean I don’t have morals? I didn’t even think about her age being a problem. Am I a bad person?” He asks, not wanting to look at Howon because he’s so incredibly terrified of what the answer is.

“Did you look at her age?” Howon asks him calmly.

“What?” Myungsoo asks with a frown hardly seeing the relevance. Feeling like he’s being placated. 

“Did you know how old she was?” Howon asks again. 

“No,” Myungsoo answers with more of a bite than he meant. He doesn’t  _understand_  though. He used to  _always_  understand where Howon was coming from, but not recently. 

“Well then what’s the issue Soo?” Howon asks. As if Myungsoo’s stupid for feeling this way, “You can’t be a bad person for not feeling uncomfortable about something you didn’t even realise.”

“It’s an issue because if Woohyun hadn’t pointed it out to me would I have cared? It’s an issue because I cannot name a thing I wouldn’t do if someone asked me to and that scares me.” Myungsoo admits. 

“Myungsoo,” Howon says, gently. Like he’s scared Myungsoo will break.

“Don’t talk down to me.” Myungsoo snaps, “Don’t placate me.”

“Myungsoo. You’re being silly.” Howon says firmly, reaching out to clasp his hands, “You’re allowed to feel this way but Myungsoo, do you think  _I’m_  a bad person.” 

Howon is not a bad person, Myungsoo is one hundred percent sure of that, wouldn’t be here if he was so he shakes his head emphatically, “No. Of course not.” 

“Well I’ve done a lot worse things in my life than you have,” Howon shoots him a wry smile that makes guilt churn in his stomach, “So I don’t know how you can be a bad person if I’m not.”

“I’m sorry,” Myungsoo says, feeling ashamed as he looks down at his knees. He’s forever sticking his foot in it.

“Myungsoo it’s okay,” Howon says, reaching out and cupping his neck. Myungsoo still doesn’t look at him. 

Myungsoo doesn’t feel any better. Feels like maybe the only reason he hasn’t done those worse things because he hasn’t been put in that situation. “Is it?”

“Myungsoo, you’re one of the best people I know,” Howon says, using his hands to gently force Myungsoo’s head up so they’re looking at each other, “There are so many despicable things you wouldn’t do. Do you need me to list them for you?”

Myungsoo feels so incredibly stupid but he nods. 

“You would never hurt a child Soo, you would never kill someone, you hate hurting people if you can’t help it and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.” Howon says with such fierce determination it makes Myungsoo’s heart hurt. “I promise you there is only one person I know in this world who is kinder and gentler than you, and no one is ever going to be able to compete with Dongwoo.” 

Myungsoo laughs. It’s a bit of a watery laugh (thankfully he’s not crying yet) but it’s nice.

“What’s going on with you lately?” Howon asks him in concern, letting go of his face so he can reach for Myungsoo. Before he’s even got half way there Myungsoo has launched himself at Howon, curling into his side. “Huh?” Howon prompts when Myungsoo doesn’t answer straight away.

“It’s nothing, I’m fine.” Myungsoo says with as much certainty as he can muster. 

“Kim Myungsoo,” Howon growls. “The only time you ever say it’s nothing is when you’re lying to me.”

“I’m not lying to you,” Myungsoo insists, “I’m just… thinking. Nothing bad. Nothing about you, just…” Myungsoo trails off. He doesn’t know what he’s saying or thinking and he just wants to stop talking about it.

Thankfully Howon gets that. “Okay Soo,” He says soothingly, running his fingers through Myungsoo’s hair, “Contrary to popular belief you don’t actually have to tell me everything you’re thinking at all hours of the day.” Myungsoo isn’t sure if that’s gentle teasing directed at him or a dig at the others, “Just, if something’s really bothering you don’t let it eat you. I know that’s never really been a problem for you but maybe you could use the reminder.” 

“If there was I would, I promise,” Myungsoo says, resting his head on Howon’s chest. Then to make sure he’s really believed he repeats it, “I promise.”

 

 

♝♝♝

THE DESTINY JOB : JULY 2013

 

Sungyeol has done some weird things in his life with his computer skills, and not all of them have been at Sunggyu’s instructions. He still firmly believes that this might potentially be the most bizarre thing he’s done to date. 

“What are you doing?” Myungsoo asks, having appeared from seemingly nowhere behind Sungyeol, (sometimes Sungyeol forgets he was a thief himself and is almost as sneaky as Sungjong when he wants to be), “Is that Woohyun?” 

“Yes,” Sungyeol says, squinting slightly at his screen and wondering if he went a bit overboard with the eyeliner.

“Is this a personal project?” Myungsoo asks, resting his chin on Sungyeol’s head (Sungyeol has only recently managed to teach him that back hugs are counterproductive to working on the computer), “Or for a job?”

“I have better things to do with my life than make weird edits of Woohyun on Photoshop,” Sungyeol says matter-of-factly.

“I’m not sure that’s entirely true,” Sungjong says because of course Sungjong is skulking around; when is Sungjong not skulking around and dropping out of the ceiling?

“He’s right, you do weird things in the name of pranks and revenge,” Myungsoo agrees solemnly. Sungyeol can feel him nodding against his skull.

“If I was going to waste my valuable time Photoshopping pictures of Woohyun,” Sungyeol says grandly, “I would come up with something much better than mystic.”

“That’s true,” Myungsoo agrees now inexplicably resting his palms between his chin and Sungyeol’s head.

“I mean, it actually seems like the unoriginal type of thing you would go for,” Sungjong says dryly.

“It’s lame enough for Yeol,” Myungsoo agrees. Traitor, “But it’s also way too subtle for him.”

 "I’ll turn you both into strippers if you’re not careful,” Sungyeol threatens.

“I think I have the body for it,” Myungsoo says consideringly. Sungjong just huffs in that way he does when he’s trying to convey how unamused he is.

“What do you have the body for?” Hoya asks, coming into the room with Dongwoo behind him. They look like they’ve both come from the gym but it wouldn’t take an expert to figure that out; those two spend half their days in the gym. 

“Stripping.” Sungjong offers in that unamused tone of voice. 

“I wouldn’t say that,” Hoya says, wrinkling his nose in faux disgust. 

Considering the fact Sungyeol’s head is still being used as a headrest by Myungsoo he can’t actually see his reaction but he’d bet good money Myungsoo is sticking his tongue out at Hoya like the mature adult he is.  

“I mean if I was going to Photoshop pictures of you as a stripper and put them out the world I’d use actual stripper pictures,” Sungyeol says.

“Do you have a collection of stripper pictures then?” Sungjong asks him snarkily, “I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“You can find anything on the internet,” Sungyeol doesn’t bite because he’s above that.  

“If you can find anything on the internet why is your porn collection-” Sungjong starts to say smugly. Fuck it Sungyeol is not above it.

“Why are we Photoshopping strippers?” Dongwoo interjects sounding confused, “Is this for a job?”

“I’m not Photoshopping strippers,” Sungyeol sighs, rubbing at his eyes. He is one of the best hackers in the world, definitely the best hacker in Asia, and yet here he is being reduced to awful internet hoaxes, “I’m Photoshopping Woohyun.” 

“Into a stripper?” Hoya asks, leaning against the nearest wall. Sungyeol isn’t sure why he leans against them so often - maybe he thinks it makes him look cool.

“No,” Sungyeol wrinkles his nose, wishing they could stop talking about strippers - he doesn’t need visualise any member of his team as a stripper. 

“Into an alien.” Myungsoo says earnestly.

 “Woohyun? That wouldn’t require much effort on Sungyeol’s behalf,” Hoya quips. He’s still not funny. 

“What are you actually turning Woohyun into?” Dongwoo asks curiously, coming round behind Sungyeol and peering at his screen, “Jesus?”

 Perhaps the walking on water was a bit of an overkill, “If Sunggyu was getting anyone to play Jesus for a job it would be himself and not Woohyun.” Sungyeol says.

“Okay, I have heard you mention my name six times in the last minute,” Woohyun materialises in the doorway, leaving only Sunggyu not present in this spontaneous little get together, “so why the fuck are you talking about me?”

“Why are you eavesdropping so you can  _hear_  us talking about you?” Myungsoo asks innocently. 

“It was actually only four times,” Hoya says at the same time.

“I’m not eavesdropping, no one in this team has any sort of volume control,” Woohyun sighs, pulling out the seat opposite where Sungyeol’s sitting and dropping into it.

Sungjong, who has been eyeing Woohyun consideringly since he walked in, speaks up, “Do you really think Woohyun can pull it off?” 

“Pull what off?” Woohyun asks, puffing his chest out in pride, “I can pull anything off.”

“Again, that’s debatable,” Hoya scoffs. 

Woohyun turns his head towards Hoya, looking like he’s ready to launch into a tirade before Dongwoo cuts him off, “Not Jesus, apparently.” 

“Not Jesus?” Woohyun asks looking as confused by this conversation as Sungyeol feels. All he was trying to do was complete his job in peace.

“Sungyeol is apparently trying to make you into a psychic or a medium or some sort of magician bullshit,” Sungjong decides to put everyone out of their misery, “Clearly he’s not doing a very good job.”

Dongwoo tilts his head, “No, I think I can see that. Maybe.” And he’s supposed to be the  _nice_  one. 

“I would like to see you do better,” Sungyeol says, wondering if Myungsoo’s actually going to get off him anytime soon. There are four other people in the room for him to be hanging off who aren’t actually trying to do productive things. 

“Sungyeol, have you finished,” Sunggyu starts to say, coming into the room reading something on his phone before he looks up and notices the whole fucking gang is here, “I didn’t call a meeting yet.” Sunggyu says with a frown. Sungyeol likes to think he can hear an unspoken  _did I?_  coming from him.

“It’s not a meeting, we’ve gotten together to gossip about you behind your back.” Myungsoo says cheerfully. Loudly. With his mouth still closer to Sungyeol’s ear than is particularly comfortable. 

“I’m about to go meet the client,” Sunggyu says, eyeing them all suspiciously. He is probably right to be suspicious, it’s a rare day they assemble all together like this when Sunggyu has yet to call them.

“Before you do that though you have to tell us why Woohyun’s pretending to be a psychic,” Dongwoo says, looking confused and amused at the idea.

“For a job.” Sunggyu retorts dryly. 

“Because the target is a whacko who believes in that mystic shit,” Sungyeol pipes up, wondering if it’d be overkill to go for an article about Woohyun flying or turning one food into another or something. Continue the Jesus parallels.

“And Woohyun has more of that ‘batcrap crazy’ look about him that’s necessary for this kind of role,” Hoya interjects playfully.

“You’re one to talk about crazy,” Woohyun mutters at Hoya with a glare that is (probably) more playful than anything, “Why can’t you do it.”

“Can you imagine Hoya trying to be a fake psychic,” Sungyeol scoffs at the mental image, “He’d get like a day in before getting fed up with how stupid and gullible everyone was and calling it quits.” 

“Considering it’s for a good cause, I’d give him at least three days.” Dongwoo says seriously. Sungyeol makes a valiant effort not to laugh but he fails. 

“I don’t know, I’ve not quit after two years with you lot then,” Hoya says pointedly. 

“You kind of have,” Woohyun points out dryly, “On at least three separate occasions,” 

“Not spending my whole life living in your pocket is not quitting,” Hoya scoffs. Sungyeol can’t tell if they’re joking or actually annoyed at each other anymore.

“Enough,” Sunggyu says with an exhausted sigh, “Woohyun, if you could stop squabbling with Hoya for five minutes, you need to come meet the client with me.”

“Didn’t I go to the last one with you?” Woohyun asks, dropping his head on his hands.

“Yes, but it’s important you go to  _this_  one with me seeing as you’ll be the one running this job,” Sunggyu says before turning on his heel and striding from the room. He clearly just expects Woohyun to follow him. 

“What the fuck?” Hoya and Woohyun say simultaneously.

Sungyeol’s thoughts exactly. 

 

 

 

♙♙♙

POST THE CHASER JOB: AUGUST 2012

 

 

Once the dust clears on The Chaser Job, no one expects to see Hoya or Myungsoo for a month, minimum. Personally Woohyun thinks the two of them are going to leave the country and hole away for a while.

That’s why he’s extremely surprised to come back to Sungjong’s apartment one evening less than a week after the job to find Hoya sitting on the couch and no sight of Sungjong anywhere. 

“What are you doing here?” Woohyun asks suspiciously, putting his bag down slowly. Then a thought occurs to him, “Is Myungsoo okay?”

“Myungsoo is fine,” Hoya tells him soothingly. That makes sense, if Myungsoo wasn’t okay then Hoya wouldn’t be here, or wouldn’t be here lounging on the couch like he owned the place “I wanted to see if  _you_  were okay.” 

“How did you get in?” Woohyun asks, ignoring the inquiry after his welfare. 

“I have Sungjong’s spare key. Sungjong has mine.” Hoya says matter-of-factly, which makes sense. Or as much sense as Sungjong needing a key to get in anywhere could make.

“Huh,” Woohyun says in acknowledgement, because what else is he meant to say to that.

“You haven’t answered my question,” Hoya says, looking at him in that appraising way of his.

“Did you ask a question?” Woohyun asks lightly, hoping Hoya will take the hint and drop the questioning. Of course Hoya doesn’t because besides from Sunggyu he’s the most stubborn person Woohyun has ever had the misfortune of working with. 

“How are  _you_?” Hoya asks, point blank.

“I’m fine. I’m not the one that…” Woohyun trails off, not wanting to think about, “I should be asking how Myungsoo is, shouldn’t you be with him?”

“He’s fine,” Hoya repeats, sounding so sure about it that it reassures Woohyun just a little “Sungyeol is with him.”

Woohyun’s not sure how to feel or what to say in response to that so he says nothing and continues to stand by the door. 

“Woohyun,” Hoya says when it becomes apparent that’s what Woohyun’s plan is, “Let’s not do this again.”

“Do what?” Woohyun asks, crossing his arms over his chest. He’s tired and he’s exhausted and has spent days consumed with guilt. He doesn’t have time for this now, or the energy, “Have you only ever rock up to talk to me when everyone’s too scared to do so. When you think I need your bullshit counselling or you’re scared I’m going to go off the reservation or something?” He sounds bitter. Hoya brings that out in him.

“Woohyun,” Hoya says, holding his hand out, “Come here.”

Woohyun is not Myungsoo, he can’t be placated with a simple touch. But this  _is_  Hoya and Woohyun can count the number of times that Hoya has offered any sort of contact outside a job on one hand. So, that wins his internal battle and he makes his way to the couch, sitting next to Hoya. 

“Hey,” Hoya says again, bumping their knees together, “I’m not here to placate you. I’m here because you can usually deal with this shit yourself, we all can and I respect that, but this time is different.” 

“Myungsoo is fine,” Woohyun parrots Hoya from earlier, “He’s fine so I’m fine.”

“And I came to tell you he’s fine so you  _believe_  it.” Hoya says matter-of-factly. It’s true though, Woohyun trusts Hoya not to lie to him. Sungyeol might not lie to him either, but when it comes to Myungsoo it’s Hoya that Woohyun trusts. More so he truly believes Hoya would not be making time for him if Myungsoo wasn’t fine. 

“Okay.” Woohyun agrees, looking at his lap. 

“And,” Hoya reaches out to squeeze his shoulder, forcing Woohyun to look at him, “It’s categorically not your fault. There is not a single thing that you could have done differently that would have resulted in a better outcome. So stop feeling guilty.” 

“The weight of the world’s not on my shoulders hey?” Woohyun can help but ask wryly, “Is that because it’s on yours?”

“I share some of that burden with Sunggyu,” Hoya jokes with a smile that’s not quite genuine but is getting there, “Or at least I like to let him think that.”

Woohyun snorts because that sounds about right for the way Sunggyu and Hoya think. 

“I’m sorry you had to make that call,” Woohyun says once it becomes clear that Hoya’s makeshift pep talk if finished. Very anticlimactic compared to the last one but probably preferable. He has to say this though because someone needs to apologise to Hoya, for making him make the impossible choice. 

“Someone had to.” Hoya says simply. As if pretending to accept it will erase the memory or how pained he’d looked at the time. 

“Sunggyu had to,” Woohyun says, feeling angry on Hoya’s behalf. Then he sighs 

“You know Sunggyu uses you to make the calls that need to be made that he doesn’t want to be responsible for.” Woohyun tells him quietly. Hoya has probably noticed, he’s switched on that way, but Woohyun is struck with the sudden urge to make it awkward. To turn this ‘I care about your welfare please talk to me’ bullshit that Hoya’s spouting at him back on him.

“I know.” Hoya says with a weird sense of certainty “But someone has to make them, and I’m dammed anyway.”

“If you’re dammed what about the rest of us?” Woohyun has to ask, eyebrow cocked. If that’s the way that Hoya looks at this team, some helpful but ultimately futile search for redemption, well Woohyun has read him all wrong.  

“Some people are beyond redemption,” Hoya says with such certainty that it makes a chill run down Woohyun’s spine, “I’m one of them, the rest of you aren’t, so the least I can do is make sure that none of the rest of you end up like me.”

“I don’t think you’re a bad person.” Woohyun tells him. It’s probably the nicest thing he’s said to Hoya but he  _needs_  to let him know.

“Thank you,” Hoya flashes a grin at him that’s the opposite of reassuring. For the first time Woohyun understands why Hoya used to have the reputation that he did, “But you don’t know the half of what I’ve done.”

“You know,” Woohyun says because he needs to lighten the mood right now for his own sake, “You’re not nearly half as scary  _or_ as mysterious you pretend to be.”

That startles a laugh out of Hoya, the first he’s seen from him in a couple of weeks. “Thank you,” Hoya says, when he’s finished laughing, bumping their shoulders together again, though this one is much more playful.

“What for?” Woohyun can’t help asking, very confused by the many directions in which this conversation has swerved in a relatively short period of time.

“For being you,” Hoya says, as confusing as that sounds, “And calling it like you see it.” Then, the most surprising thing of all is he’s resting his head on Woohyun’s shoulder with a heavy sigh, looking like it’s the first chance he’s had to  _breathe_  in weeks. 

Maybe it is. Woohyun won’t question it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: repeatedly tells you how much of a dork Hoya is  
> Also Me: Never actually shows you him being a dork because trying to capture his sense of humour makes me cringe
> 
> I crossed 50,000 words of this written last night (well early this morning) and I'm kind of proud of myself - most I've written for a fic ever.


	7. Chapter Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was all prepared for this chapter to be a day late because my beta has had an amazingly busy week (abseiling off fucking skyscrapers lady I love you but you're fucking insane). Except then after said week and a shift that I'm sure finished at like? 1am her time (I was half asleep talking to her my internal clock is fucked) she edited this for me so. You know I thank her every chapter and you're probably tired of hearing this but I need to say it.

_You never count on the perfect plan. The perfect plan, it has too many moving parts, and it's... you've got to expect the perfect plan to fail._

 

♖♖♖

THE MAN IN LOVE JOB: MARCH 2013

 

After three years together, no one really protests anymore when Sunggyu calls them all together for ‘briefing’ sessions and then leaves them hanging for hours at a time whilst he’s meeting with clients. At the very least it gives everyone an opportunity to bitch about Sunggyu behind his back, get it out of their system.

Which is why all six of them are surprised when they trickle into their meeting room one by one to find Sunggyu already waiting for them.

Dongwoo doesn’t know what Sunggyu’s doing any more than any of the rest of them do, but that doesn’t stop them shooting him questioning looks. He stopped trying to understand why Sunggyu did the things he did years ago, and he’s all the happier for it. 

“Have you met the client already then?” Woohyun, of course it’s Woohyun, asks once they’ve all arrived.

“That seems efficient and also like something that wouldn’t waste our time.” Sungyeol says sounding bored, “Which means it’s definitely not something that Sunggyu ever considered.”

“We don’t have a client this time.” Sunggyu says matter-of-factly. There’s a sort of stunned silence after that before everyone erupts into noise (everyone except Sungjong and Dongwoo himself - better to let someone like Sungyeol or Hoya at it; someone who’s going to get under Sunggyu’s skin and force an answer from him). 

“Is everyone done?” Sunggyu asks mildly once the noise has died down.

“It depends,” Myungsoo speaks up from his position next to Dongwoo (though perhaps it would be more accurate to say on top of Dongwoo), “Are you going to give us answers?”

“Yeah, like why you’ve decided to go out on your own without a client?” Woohyun asks, crossing his arms over his chest - always projecting his hostility, “Or is this one of those private things you can’t tell us about again.” 

“I think we’ve just, we’ve reached the next stage of his evolution into benevolent dictator,” Sungyeol says dryly, “which is earlier than expected; I had November in the pool.”

“The most surprising thing is you’re considering him benevolent.” Hoya says in a drawl. It’s the usual sort of ganging up mockery the two of them pull on Sunggyu but it feels more half-hearted, like they’re just going through motions, than usual. 

Then again the two of them have been up to something recently (planning a surprise for Myungsoo’s birthday, they’d said when Dongwoo had asked) so they’re probably running on more than half empty tanks.

“I think this is an important target for us.” Sunggyu explains with a sigh. He’s not outright hostile at being questioned though, which counts as character growth. Dongwoo’s oddly proud of him.

“Where?” Myungsoo asks curiously. Not the first question Dongwoo would have asked himself. 

“Brighton,” Sunggyu answers. They’ve been based out of London for a while now, Sunggyu wanting to put as much distance between himself and The Chaser job as possible. No one protested at the time because Dongwoo feels like they might all be avoiding Seoul and Korea in general for the next little while. 

“Not too far away then,” Myungsoo says happily. He probably doesn’t want to resettle again. Dongwoo agrees there, the constant moving is not something he’s really fond of. 

“I suppose someone should ask what our target is so we can get out of here this century.” Sungjong sighs, before anyone else can get in with another question he probably deems pointless. 

“Declan Harris.”

“The Real Estate developer?” Woohyun asks with a low whistle, “The one that owns like half of Brighton, Manchester, Liverpool and a good chunk of London?” 

“That’s the one.” Sunggyu says grimly.

“Has he actually  _done_  anything?” Myungsoo asks, though judging by the look on his face it’s more to wind Sunggyu up than anything, “Or are you just being anti-capitalist in general.”

“You mean besides bribing, blackmailing, not paying his workers a decent wage and the number of workers he’s got working for him on dodgy visas so they have no legal options? Oh he’s an upstanding citizen.” Despite his words Sunggyu doesn’t seem that bothered by Myungsoo’s needling which is odd, the whole reason Myungsoo does it is because Sunggyu usually reacts.

“It’s almost a cliché,” Hoya says, “Does he have really underhanded rental agreements as well? Then he really would be doing basically everything he possibly could.” 

“He does and he is.” Sunggyu confirms. 

“What’s our entrance strategy then?” Sungyeol asks.  For the first time he seems to have no more knowledge than the rest of them. 

“Have you heard of Fairview Tower?” Sunggyu asks with a smirk. They all nod because of course they have, it’s been in all the news recently since it just opened and the luxurious penthouses have been splashed across all glossy magazines as interior designers’ wet dreams. That, and the 24-hour security guaranteed to all its tenants, amongst other features, have done a lot to attract a good deal of attention. “Two of you will be moving into the penthouse flat next to his.”

“Two of us?” Myungsoo asks hesitantly, looking unsettled. Dongwoo can understand why since he’s drawn the same conclusion. They probably all have.

“Yes,” Sunggyu says, “I figured the best way to get to him and catch him off guard was if a nice couple moved in next door to him.”

“Couple,” Woohyun says sounding about as hesitant as Myungsoo did, “Two of _us_?”

 “Yes.” 

“Who?” Sungyeol asks much more eagerly than the other two. They can all tell who it’s going to be (and it explains why Sunggyu was so calm at Myungsoo’s teasing earlier - he knew this was coming) they’re just waiting for Sunggyu to confirm it. 

“Our grifters. Obviously.” Sunggyu says dryly.  

“Married? To Myungsoo?” Woohyun is essentially yelling at this point even though the rest of the room is silent, “You’ve got to be kidding, what kind of fucking joke is this?”

“What,” Myungsoo shrieks. Right into Dongwoo’s ear. His discomfort must show on his face because a few seconds later Myungsoo is patting his ear, and apologising.

 Surprisingly Hoya looks like he’s trying very hard not to laugh (he’s really not succeeding in the slightest.)

“Why do I have to be married to  _him_?” Myungsoo whines, as if his biggest problem isn’t spontaneous team marriage being thrown on him but the fact it’s with Woohyun that is the real deal breaker. 

“Yeah, can’t him and Hoya do it?” Woohyun asks, crossing his arms over his chest with a pout, “They’re essentially domestic and gross anyway. No one would doubt it for a second.” Hoya continues to laugh. 

“You’re both grifters,” Sunggyu says dryly, “And Woohyun regularly tells me that he’s the best in the game. I’m sure you can both make it work.” 

“There are some things even I can’t make convincing,” Woohyun huffs. 

“Really?” Dongwoo cannot help asking, “Because that guy from the White Confessions job you had to pretend to be into was a real piece of work.” 

“Yeah,” Sungyeol joins in, “Are you saying Myungsoo is worse than him?” 

Myungsoo widens his eyes in that kicked puppy expression he does so well. Woohyun scoffs, “Don’t pretend to be all hurt, you’re the one that doesn’t want to be married to me.”

“Well I mean, I’d really rather not be fake married to any of you,” Myungsoo says, “and I’d rather be married to you than Sunggyu? Does that count for something?”

“Oh yeah,” Woohyun scoffs, “Makes me feel loads better thanks.” Dongwoo looks to Sunggyu to see if he looks particularly offended, but luckily for all of them he just looks mildly annoyed and that’s his default expression in these kind of meetings. 

“Well, look at it this way,” Sungjong speaks up ever so dryly, “They’re already bickering like a married couple.” 

Dongwoo can’t help but laugh at that, and at least this time he’s not the only one (although he’s not entirely sure Hoya’s ever  _stopped_  laughing).

“Besides, at least this way you’ll be highly motivated to get this job finished as soon as possible.” Sungyeol says with a smirk. 

“Why can’t Sungyeol be fake married?” Woohyun asks with what Dongwoo would probably describe as a pout though he knows Woohyun would hate that description, “Since he seems to be the only one enjoying this.” 

Personally Dongwoo would say that Hoya is enjoying this most of all, but he could be wrong. He’s not Woohyun the self-proclaimed ‘expert in body language’ after all.

“Because no one else in this team is competent enough to do Sungyeol’s job.” Sunggyu says dryly. Sungyeol preens, “And before you ask, no, Hoya cannot do it, I have a different assignment for him.”

Hoya sits to attention at that, as he always does when he’s called upon by Sunggyu. As much as he likes to argue with Sunggyu, there’s part of his obvious military training that he can never let go of, even if he’s not aware he’s doing it. Hoya’s a very self-aware person though - Dongwoo thinks he probably knows even if none of the other members have noticed (after all as far as Dongwoo’s aware he and Hoya are the only two that have actually done their military service). 

“Oh?” Hoya asks, playing it casual. 

“You’ll be the buildings newest security guard,” Sunggyu says, holding up a hand, “And before anyone asks why Dongwoo can’t do it, I hope we all remember last time Dongwoo tried to go ‘undercover’ as a guard before asking.”

Dongwoo shrugs shamelessly. So grifting isn’t his strong suit and he has no desire to improve at it, he’d really rather not be at Sunggyu’s mercy the way the three that do it are. 

“Do we really have to be fake gay married to each other?” Woohyun gives a last token protest, “I’m sure there’s someone, somewhere we can call in a favour from. Hoya and Myungsoo know pretty much everyone in the game.”

“It’s not gay married, it’s just married.” Myungsoo mutters irritatedly next to Dongwoo. 

“Unless one of you wants to do this whole job in drag,” Sunggyu offers dryly, “Then no, we need to get started ASAP so there’s no time.”

“How soon is ASAP?” Hoya asks suspiciously.

“You move in in four days.” Sunggyu says, before doing that whole turning on his heel and walking away after making a dramatic statement that he loves.

Dongwoo’s not sure who looks more murderous at this point - Woohyun or Myungsoo. 

 

 

 

♔♚♔

POST BACK JOB : 2014

  

Sungjong very rarely is one to seek Sunggyu out personally, so when he does, Sunggyu knows something is up. 

It’s not that Sungjong is particularly antisocial or thinks he’s above the rest of them - he’s easier to drag into mischief or petty argument than he likes to pretend, especially if your name is Lee Sungyeol - but he’s very rarely the first one to initiate any sort of interaction.

“How’s the planning for the next job going?” Sungjong asks, words dripping with a forced sense of casualness.  

“We finished the last job less than two weeks ago,” Sunggyu looks up at Sungjong with a frown, “Contrary to what Sungyeol says I do give you guys some down time between jobs.”

Sungjong cocks an eyebrow. “I don’t have any major jobs in the works at the moment,” Sunggyu says, indignant that he’s not being believed. Part of the reason for that is he’s considering it’s about time to move on and weighing his options as to where but Sungjong doesn’t need to know that till he’s decided. 

“Major jobs?” 

“You’re relentless, you know that?” Sunggyu asks. And Sungjong is, in a quiet way. Sungyeol and Woohyun and Hoya openly question him, but they’re all pretty easy to dissuade with redirection or in Hoya’s case holding his ground. Sungjong on the other hand is less likely to openly question him, but when he gets stuck on something he doesn’t let it go and it’s easier for everyone involved to just give in. “I might have something that requires two people in a few weeks, but besides that I thought you all needed a break for a few weeks. Why?” Sunggyu is highly suspicious at this point.

“I was just thinking that maybe we shouldn’t take on anything too big for the next few months,” Sungjong says. 

That sets iff warning bells in Sunggyu’s head.

“Why?” He all but demands, “Do you know something I don’t know?” 

“It’s not hard to know something you don’t know.” Sungjong scoffs. Which is incredibly unhelpful.

“Sungjong,” Sunggyu says warningly. There’s not really anything he can threaten Sungjong with unfortunately, but at least Sungjong is usually not contrary for the sake of being contrary. 

“I don’t know anything but I do pay attention,” Sungjong admits with a shrug, “And I just think we might not be at full strength for a bit.”

“If you know something that’s going to affect the efficiency and capability of this team you need to tell me.” Sunggyu says.

“I don’t know anything, I just.” Sungjong bites his lip looking all the word like he’s carefully measuring his thoughts. Which is odd, Sungjong’s words are always carefully chosen but he usually doesn’t _show_  the thought going into them, “It might not happen okay, I’m not going to bias you or prepare you for something that might not eventuate. I’m just telling you don’t be too over ambitious.”

“Hoya’s still injured,” Sunggyu points out, “I can’t exactly be overambitious.” 

Sungjong snorts in amusement, “Did that stop you last job?”  

“Yes.” Sunggyu says strongly “It just didn’t stop him.” 

“Touché,”

“Look,” Sunggyu says, because it’s Sungjong and he has plans for Sungjong so now is as good a time as ever to be slightly more transparent, “I try to never plan a job that can’t be pulled off with two of us out of play.”

“Oh,” Sungjong said, as if that hadn’t occurred to him. Typical of this team.

You think I don’t have back-up plans?” Sunggyu can’t help asking, wondering what it is they think he actually does, “contingency plans?”

“We kind of just thought you pulled solutions of thin air when things went wrong” Sungjong admits.

“I wish it was that easy.” Sunggyu readily admits. If it was his job would be a damn sight easier, but unfortunately Sunggyu was not blessed with that kind of quick thinking or spontaneity. 

“How come you let me and Dongwoo get caught that one time?” Sungjong asks, eyes narrowed, “And I had to come up with a solution to bail us out.”

“You mean Hoya had to bail you out,” Sunggyu points out matter of factly, “That was before I realised how likely things are to go wrong with the six of you around. You attract bad luck.”

“At least half our bad luck was SM out for our asses,” Sungjong says. He’s not wrong.

“And the other half is the way Woohyun and Myungsoo seem to attract trouble,” Sunggyu finishes, “That’s something you’ve got to factor in,”

“So there’s a back-up plan for every job where Woohyun and Myungsoo get kidnapped?” Sungjong asks curiously.

“At least three. Each. Bare Minimum. Woohyun usually dies in plan M,” Sunggyu tells him with a shrug. Sungjong’s not likely to get the reference but he snorts anyway.

“Why are you telling me this?” Sungjong asks, thoughtfully.

“Telling you what?” Sunggyu asks. He knows exactly what he means but half the time with this team playing dumb is enough of a signal to get someone to back off.

Unless you’re Hoya, that rarely works on Sungjong though. 

“Telling me any of this, how you do your work,” Sungjong says with that ‘don’t bullshit with me’ face that he probably practices in the mirror, “I was under the impression you liked to pretend that you were just all knowing, all knowledgeable did no work, everything just fell into place.”

Sunggyu scoffs (there is part of that, he’ll admit but for the most part his reasoning is rather boring), “Hardly. The rest of you would just get bored and distracted.” 

“Why are you telling me.” Sungjong repeats, not challenging Sunggyu’s reasoning. 

“I figured someone should know,” Sunggyu says with a shrug, “And besides you started this conversation,”

“That I did.” Sungjong says. Sunggyu waits for him to continue but he doesn’t.

“Are we finished here?” Sunggyu says with a sigh, turning around for dramatic effect “Because unfortunately I don’t actually have things I could be pretending to do whilst I kick you out but I’m sure I could find something. A new job. Let everyone know it’s your fault we don’t get as much down time this time around.”

“You know,” Sungjong says in a way that he’s pretty sure is teasing, “Here I thought we were having a bonding moment. Of course that was before I remembered it’s your  _thing_  to be aloof and untouchable to the rest of us.”

When Sunggyu turns back, Sungjong is gone. 

 

 

♘♘♘

 2013

 

The Takada job is not supposed to be a big job. It’s a small job, barely a blip on the radar, that Sunggyu wants done in a week between bigger jobs. It’s so insignificant that Sungyeol hasn’t given it one of the wanky nicknames he’s so fond of. Dongwoo has been given the job off, Sungjong’s not exactly sure why, he just knows that he’s not currently in Japan with the rest of them.

Sungjong’s particular set of skills aren’t needed for this job either but Sunggyu wants him around just in case someone needs to be covered for. Sungjong doesn’t mind, he enjoys sitting in the van or headquarters with Sungyeol, bugging him when he’s too busy to respond. 

For this job they’re sitting in some government power van on the side of a Japanese street. It’s the middle of summer and not the coolest place on the planet, but at least he’s not like their two grifters (and Hoya) walking around in the heat in a full suit.

Well Myungsoo and Hoya are currently in an air conditioned coffee shop together, so maybe Sungjong envies them a little, but Woohyun is pacing on the street outside the office building that coffee shop is located in trying to make it seems like he’s nervous to go in or something. Sungjong personally thinks he looks a bit stupid. 

Sungyeol’s clearly thinking the same thing because a couple of seconds later he starts whining “How much longer do we have to watch Woohyun pace?”

“We could switch the feed to Myungsoo and Hoya,” Sungjong points out, since he’s sure watching the two of them sit in the shop is probably more boring.

“This is a M rated show, nothing more explicit.” Sungyeol says.

“So that means no blood when I murder you then?” Sungjong snarks straight back, “Shame, I was really looking forward to slitting you-”

“Please stop,” Myungsoo tells them over the comms sounding slightly horrified, “You’re going to give me nightmares.”

“You’re a criminal Myungsoo, a little threat shouldn’t bother you,” Sungyeol retorts. Which is accurate for once.

“I’m a grifter, not a torture expert or something.” Myungsoo says. The camera’s Sungyeol’s tapped into aren’t of the best quality but Sungjong can still make out he’s pouting.

“No, you’ve just been living with one for however long you and Hoya have been doing your thing,” Woohyun finally cuts in dryly. 

“Torture was never really my area of expertise…” Hoya starts to say matter-of-factly before Woohyun cuts him off. Sungjong is glad, he’s known Howon a long time - since before Hoya even existed, and there are some details of his oldest friends life and history he’d really rather not know; there are some things he knows would change the way he perceived Hoya.

“Okay, I’m about to go, is that enough time oh wise one?” Woohyun asks.

“Well…” Sungyeol starts to say, though clearly having no intention to continue speaking beyond that.

“Yes,” Sunggyu speaks up for the first time - probably because it’s the first time he’s been addressed by his official title. “But play it slow.”

“Yes boss,” Woohyun says sarcastically, pulling his phone out of his pocket to get the job underway.

Finally Woohyun’s approaching the sliding doors and just about to go in when he stiffens, considerably.

“What’s he doing?” Sungyeol mutters under his breath, splitting the cameras on the screen for a better look.

Woohyun straightens, and moves the phone to his ear like he’s answering it, “Sungyeol,” He hisses, sounding strangely urgent, “Check the alias.”

“Check the alias?” Sungyeol asks in confusion, “What are you talking about?”

“Check that it’s clean,” Woohyun insists.

Sungyeol starts to protest in a way that’s so incredibly indignant that Sungjong has to try not to laugh, “Excuse me, I created that alias especially for you, it’s not one of those second rate identities you somehow managed to survive on before this - it is fool proof, airtight, absolutely one hundred percent it will be clean.” 

He’s being melodramatic on purpose, but Sungjong’s been watching Sungyeol closely, and he does seem legitimately offended that Woohyun is questioning the quality of the work he’s done. 

“Sungyeol, I’m serious.” Woohyun is standing his ground, and Sungjong really has no idea what is going on here, “I’m not going in until you can guarantee.”

“I can guarantee without looking,” Sungyeol scoffs.

Sunggyu sighs, voice filtering over the comms, “Sungyeol will you just check for him so we can move on. If it’s as airtight as you say it won’t be an issue.”

Sungyeol mutters under his breath, quite violently, but he does as he’s asked. 

“We might have a problem,” Sungjong is broken out of his musings by a white faced Sungyeol.

“Problem.” Sunggyu barks in that way he does when one of his plans goes to shit, “I thought you said these identities were airtight.”

“They are.” Sungyeol snaps back, with uncharacteristic bite in his voice, “The identity itself is still holding up, it’s perfect it’s flawless he still seems like a real person, but someone has managed to completely discredit it.”

“What do you mean discredit it?” Hoya asks sounding deadly serious, “And is it just Woohyun’s identity?”

“Give me a second to look,” Sungyeol says, the only sound the furious clicking of the keys as he works. Sungjong comes up behind him to peer at the school, even if the lines of code mean nothing to him, “Yeah it’s just Woohyun, Hoya and Myungsoo’s credibility seems intact.”

“What do you mean credibility?” Sungjong asks not entirely following along, “What exactly happened?”

“Someone’s gotten on the internet and planted all these stories about Woohyun’s alias being, well a quack at the very least, unproven allegations of fraud at the worst.” Sungyeol says, “In the last twelve hours because I  _just_  planted those articles about his expertise last night and they were fine.”

“Woohyun, abort.” Sunggyu barks the order. Sungjong watches through the security feeds that Sungyeol is taped into as Woohyun turns and walks away without entering the building, “Myungsoo, Hoya, get out when you can but if they’re not compromised..” he pauses here.

Sungyeol sighs and checks again, “They’re still not compromised.”

“Well then get out so we can regroup without blowing your cover. The more of the groundwork we can salvage the better.” Sunggyu says.

Sungyeol starts muttering under his breath about how the only work getting thrown away is  _his_  and how many hours he spent creating the alias and planting the articles do you know how little sleep he got the last two night because of this. He’s still muttering when Woohyun gets in the van five minutes later.

“Who could have done this?” Sungjong asks straight away, “I thought we said the target didn’t have the resources for this.”

It’s not directed at anyone, but since Sungyeol was the one that said the words in the briefing, he takes it as yet another person questioning his ability, “They don’t,” Sungyeol snaps at Sungjong with so much venom that he’s taken aback, “Trust me these people couldn’t plant a single fake article on the internet, let alone remove some of mine and orchestrate such a subtle and well-constructed smear campaign.” Sungyeol says grudgingly. “Whoever they are, they’re good.”

“You know who does have the resources,” Myungsoo says grimly, “And has it out for us.”

“Fuck,” Sungjong hadn’t considered that. Hadn’t really considered SM to be an overt threat. Which in hindsight was rather stupid of him.

“If they’re sabotaging our jobs now I think that qualifies as a problem.” Hoya says. His tone is light but forced, the one he uses when he’s having an I told you so moment. He must have been voicing his complaints to Sunggyu about leaving SM alone for the moment. 

“We don’t know it’s SM.” Sunggyu says levelly.

“Well who else is it going to be,” Woohyun asks, thumping his head into the back of the van. 

“Hey,” Sungyeol turns towards Woohyun with narrowed eyes, “Wait a minute.   _I_  didn’t know the alias had been compromised since none of my warnings or alarms I have to let me know when one has been tampered with triggered, so how the fuck could _you_ know?”

Sungjong turns his attention to Woohyun as well. It’s a good question.

“It was SM. I know it was SM,” Woohyun says insisted of answering the question. Woohyun is an expert at misdirection and changing subject topics, the best Sungjong has ever seen and he’s been in the business awhile, but this particular attempt isn’t even very good. 

“How do you know?” Hoya asks in that forced light tone of voice, a very clear warning floating underneath, though what he’s warning about Sungjong doesn’t know. 

“I noticed one of their goons hovering by the side of the road. He was trying to be inconspicuous but he wasn’t very good at it,” Woohyun answers.

“Who was it?” Sunggyu asks sharply.

“Do you think I know the names of all the idiots that work for SM? There’s more of them than anyone can keep track of,” Woohyun scoffs. He sounds awfully defensive, though that might just be the fact he’s being interrogated for essentially saving the job. 

“Can you at least describe him?” Sunggyu presses on, why he’s so suspicious Sungjong doesn’t know though it could also just be the way his worry manifests. Sunggyu is not the best at emotions (none of this team are). 

“I’ve got him,” Sungyeol says, having been shifting through the footage whilst Sunggyu talks, “Young looking thing, I don’t recognise him.”

“Yeah, he was pretty fucking obvious so he can’t be part of Lee Jinki’s team,” Woohyun says rubbing at his eyes in frustration, “And he was too young for that other team, I don’t know who their leader is I don’t care.” Woohyun says.

“It’s got to be a member that new team they were putting together last year,” Hoya says, finally strolling out of the cafe, now also with his phone pressed to his ear.

“Our main priority right now shouldn’t be who exactly they sent after us but  _why_  they’re sabotaging us,” Sungjong points out. They’re getting caught up on unnecessary details again, as this team has a habit of doing. 

“They’re sabotaging us because we stepped on their toes, and then Sunggyu had the gall to personally insult them,” Hoya says dryly as they watch him get into his car on the monitor, “The question is how much further they’re going to go.”

“This is probably a warning,” Sunggyu says, sounding exhausted. Sungjong really wouldn’t want to be in his shoes right now. “So here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to get Dongwoo to come back, we’re going to meet up at headquarters and we’re going to recalibrate everything. Once we figure out how much further SM is planning to go we’ll decide what to do about them. For now we’re not abandoning this job.”

“No one thought we would,” Myungsoo says cheerfully, sliding into the car next to Hoya. Sungjong hadn’t even seen him leave the cafe though he’d hardly been paying that much attention to the monitors at this point, “Because you’re not a quitter, right Sunggyu?”

Myungsoo is clearly mocking Sunggyu, but either Sunggyu can’t tell or doesn’t care because he just responds, “Damn right. Instead we’re going to use SM’s play to our advantage.” 

Sungjong cannot wait to see how Sunggyu will turn this around, it seems impossible, but it’s Sunggyu and his plans always come out perfectly in the end. 

 

♝♝♝

THE BEFORE DAWN JOB: JANUARY 2011

 

Sungyeol knows Myungsoo’s name, of course he does, and Hoya and Myungsoo both know that he knows but they have an unspoken agreement not to mention it. Sungyeol still calls him L to his face even if he thinks it’s stupid to call someone a single letter. 

The rest of the team (as far as Sungyeol is aware - though there’s always Sungjong who holds his cards so close to his chest that he might know) don’t know his name and continue to call him L. He must have a reason for not wanting the rest of the team to know his name the same way Hoya does and Sungyeol respects that. It doesn’t stop him feeling silly.

He figured eventually Myungsoo would just decide that being called L wasn’t a thing he wanted forever, or someone would slip up, and very casually they’d all fall into the use of his real name.

Reality was a damn sight more dramatic.

Sungyeol has no idea what Dongwoo said to get Woohyun to agree to Sunggyu’s plan of getting himself arrested, but eventually he did relent. (Sungyeol’s also not sure if having Dongwoo in as a guard was always part of the plan or a concession that Sunggyu made for Woohyun. If Sunggyu even knows what a concession is). 

Eventually Woohyun does agree, which is how they’ve ended up here. Myungsoo and Woohyun are in a mid-security prison, with Dongwoo as their guard doing a terrible job of pretending not to know them as the rest of the team observes with baited breath, hoping that neither of them are recognised and nothing goes wrong. 

It’s a crucial part of the plan, which is why everyone is glued to the monitors that Sungyeol has patched into the prison security cameras.

Everything goes to plan to begin with, Myungsoo ‘accidentally’ bumps into Woohyun in the corridor which devolves into an argument and then a fist fight. 

A crowd gathers around them, then a guard comes to separate them. Instead Woohyun kicks him in the face as Myungsoo manages to slip something into his pocket.

They’re halfway there, now all they need is to fight a little bit longer, draw all the guards so that Dongwoo can get his part of the job done.

After another couple of minutes of fighting, just as it looks like the guards might get tasers or pepper spray or whatever prison guards use (obviously Sungyeol wouldn’t know, he’s never gotten close to caught before let alone anywhere near a prison), Dongwoo whispers through the coms, “Alright, I’m done.”

“Okay, wrap it up then guys,” Sunggyu says. Completely unnecessarily seeing as Dongwoo’s confirmation was the prearranged cue to end the fight.

 Except they don’t stop.

They all watch through the monitors as Myungsoo and Woohyun continue to brawl. The way they’re swinging, Sungyeol is pretty sure this isn’t acting, it’s got to be personal. Especially for Myungsoo who has one of the fiercest looks Sungyeol has ever seen on a person on his face, and he lived with his Grandmother. 

“L.” Sunggyu barks, “Enough.”  Myungsoo ignores them and just keeps swinging. Despite the fact that they know that Woohyun can hold his own, Myungsoo had gotten the drop on him whilst he’d been pulling his punches, and fairly soon Myungsoo has Woohyun pinned to the ground beneath him, fist raised menacingly.

Sungyeol is starting to seriously think that they’re about to watch one of their grifters kill the other (and they all know it’ll be Myungsoo with blood on his hands) when Hoya’s voice crackles through the comms. “Myungsoo. Stop it,” he barks, and then gentler (if anything about Hoya could ever be described as gentle) “Stop it,”

Myungsoo sags, Woohyun looking relieved but confused (he doesn’t have a comm, Sungyeol remembers with a start, of course he doesn’t understand why Myungsoo’s stopped). 

Hoya is talking to Myungsoo in a hushed voice, in a language that Sungyeol can’t even identify much less understand as the guards descend on him, pulling him off Woohyun who lies on the ground panting and looking as pathetic as possible.

The plan is going to need readjusting - Woohyun was meant to be the aggressor and end up in solitary but it’s clearly going to be Myungsoo now. Sungyeol hopes that the paranoia Sunggyu had of Woohyun being searched, the reason he has no comms, is without reason, as a surprisingly pliant Myungsoo is hustled along, because he really doesn’t want to have to create another earbud anytime soon. He’s already spending all his free time doing stuff for Sunggyu. Also Myungsoo being discovered would probably make it hard to get him out, there’s always that.

“What the  _fuck_  was that?” Sunggyu turns on Hoya, which could potentially be menacing if Hoya didn’t obviously have considerable more muscle mass than Sunggyu.

“That was,” Hoya pauses looking genuinely puzzled (as genuine as Hoya ever is with them), “I don’t actually know what that was. Or what it was about.”

“Fuck.” Sunggyu swears again, pulling on his earlobe like he does when he’s thinking, “Okay we’ll deal with that later when everyone’s out. For now, we’ll just have switch everything around.  Dongwoo get a comm to Woohyun as soon as possible, Sungjong take one to him when you go down there. Hoya, can you make sure Myungsoo doesn’t go feral and kill a guard or something.” He’s slipped into using Myungsoo’s real name quite easily, all things considered.

“Myungsoo can still hear you,” Sungjong points out mildly, since Myungsoo is in no position to actually say anything right now.

“I know.” Sunggyu replies simply, “I hope he knows how pissed I am at him.”

“No offence,” Myungsoo’s voice hisses down the coms. They have to strain to hear him, so no one else can hear him probably. It’s still a risk he shouldn’t be taking, “But your anger doesn’t even rate in my top twenty scariest angry people list.”

Hoya and Sungjong both snort. Sunggyu frowns looking like he’s been fatally insulted. 

“I hope I rate in that list,” Hoya says, conversationally as if they’re not in the middle of a job that Myungsoo has just fucked up spectacularly.

“Of course,” Myungsoo says as if it’s a given, “Number 2 spot is reserved just for you.”

“I’m honoured.” Hoya grins, like this is something that legitimately pleases him. Those two have got to be pulling some sort of elaborate joke on the rest of them - it’s the only thing that makes their relationship make any sort of sense.

“Can we  _focus_?” Sunggyu asks in exasperation. Sungyeol’s expecting a vein in his temple to burst from stress at any moment.

“Okay, well I’m off to solitary,” Myungsoo hisses (Sungyeol’s not sure how the guards are  _missing_  the fact he’s talking but considering how badly they’re paid they potentially don’t even care), “bye.”

He still sounds entirely too cheerful for the situation (if the way Hoya is frowning is any indication then clearly Sungyeol isn’t the only one that thinks that either).

“I hope you have a spare comm for Woohyun,” Sunggyu says to Sungyeol, trying to refocus them.

“Well,” Sungyeol says dryly, unable to stop himself pointing out how dumb Sunggyu is being, “I have Woohyun’s usual comm that he’s not wearing right now.”

“Right, yes,” Sunggyu says sounding flustered. Sungyeol doesn’t blame him in the situation considering how much of a control freak he is, though it is an easy enough fix (the only downside is Woohyun’s isn’t quite as flexible as Myungsoo - who for some reaso gives Sungjong a run for his money there), “Sungjong.”

“Already got it,” Sungjong holds out his hand, flashing the site of the spare ear piece in his hand. Sungyeol isn’t even surprised despite the fact he hadn’t seen Sungjong go anywhere near the cabinet he stores the things in.

“Alright, go on then,” Sunggyu dismisses him like Sungjong’s the one that’s fucked everything up, “Don’t dawdle, we’ve got to fix this mess as soon as possible. Get Woohyun up to speed.” Who even says dawdle in this day and age honestly?

Sungjong meets Sungyeol’s eyes and roles his before disappearing up into the ceiling as Sunggyu continues to rant.

“Sungjong is gone,” Hoya points out once Sungjong is safely away. Which is honestly a little rude, leaving Sungyeol and Hoya alone to deal with an indignant Sunggyu.

“Okay. Good.” Sunggyu says calmly. Sunggyu is never calm so this, this is disconcerting. “Once we get Woohyun in on the comms we’ll be able to fill him in properly but for now the plan stays the same we just swap their roles.”

“I don’t know that Woohyun has the acrobatic skills required for Myungsoo’s part,” Hoya points out.

“Well then he’ll have to get that done in a different way, Woohyun’s a resourceful guy, I’m sure he’ll figure it out,” Sunggyu says getting up from his own chair, “For now, Sungyeol, switch the few things in their aliases around for the later part of the play. Hoya try and make sure that,” Sunggyu pauses, clearly trying to decide what name to go for before saying, “Myungsoo doesn’t do anything else to put us at risk.”

Then he walks away dramatically. Sungyeol exchanges a look with Hoya and sighs, resting his head on his hands.

“Fuck,” Hoya says, “Soo, you’ve really done it this time.”

“Sorry,” Myungsoo whispers sounding not particularly sorry at all.

If they were alone right now he’d have a thing or ten to say to those two, but everyone except Woohyun can overhear them right now so he doesn’t. Instead he gets to work on the task he’s been set so he has something productive to do.

Sungyeol honestly doesn’t know why Myungsoo reacted the way her did, or why Woohyun barely tried to fight him off. Doesn’t know why Sunggyu is calmer than usual and he definitely doesn’t know if there’s going to be any sort of reaction or fallout to the dramatic reveal of ‘L’s’ name.

All he does know is this job just got a lot harder to pull off. And sleep is looking unlikely for the near future

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the longest spanning chapter so far I think?, IDK I've got nothing to say right now tbh, so I hope everyone enjoys the comeback in just under 12 hours and see you next week :)


	8. Chapter Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These chapters are getting longer and longer, soon we’ll be at like 10K word chapters because this one is a fucking monster (and chapter 8 is _longer_ )
> 
> Anyway, this is posted a little early (though still Sunday - 5am Sunday my time) but I'm going to be out most of ...later today? so, better early than late (It's **really** annoying me I can't publish this with the correct date because "I can't publish in the future" ITS NOT THE FUTURE DIFFERENT TIMEZONES EXIST - so I'm going to have to come back and change it at a later date).

_Looks like Parker's gonna have to crawl through the air duct again. God forbid anyone else would have to learn how to frickin' crawl on their stomach through a tiny space. It's not rocket science, people._

 

♟♟♟

 

The hardest part of grifting for Myungsoo has always, always been trying to keep a sense of himself amongst the hundreds of different identities swirling round in his head.

When he’d first started, switched from being a thief to a grifter out of pure necessity, the opposite had been harder. Trying to really feel the different identities he was playing, instead of being Kim Myungsoo with a new name.

It had taken two years, and a lot of patience from Howon, to get him to the point where he didn’t react to a call of Myungsoo anymore when he was in character, took him longer to keep straight which character he was being at which point.

By the time he they hooked up with Sunggyu’s team he really truly believed he had a handle on it.

He didn’t count on Sunggyu's elaborate plans.

Where his and Howon’s jobs had either used very short term identities, or long established ones, Sunggyu has this mishmash of throwaway personas and impressively-well crafted ones he expects Myungsoo to step into at the drop of a hat. Where Myungsoo had used seven, maybe eight identities in total, and a couple dozen more names discarded here and there, in the years he’d been with Howon he uses that many in his first year with Sunggyu’s team.

Then it just gets harder. There’s jobs he fucks up, jobs he forgets what his identity’s name is meant to be, jobs where he responds to the wrong name. Besides one job where Woohyun saved his ass big time, it’s never really been a problem for the team.

That doesn’t make Myungsoo feel any better, especially when Woohyun exists. Perfect Woohyun who has probably never had a problem grifting a day in his life, was probably born with the innate ability to just shed identities like some kind of reptile sheds skin.

Myungsoo knows he’s being jealous and petty but if there’s one fundamental thing Myungsoo has learned about who he is as a human being, it’s that he’s a selfish creature.

Logically he knows he should probably let someone know, talk it out with someone. Especially after his embarrassing little incident the other night.

This is exactly the kind of problem Myungsoo has always, and probably will always go to Howon with.

The thing is he doesn’t want to talk to Howon about this because as much as Howon understands and always has nice soothing words to say to him, he doesn’t always _get_ it.

And Myungsoo will admit that part of it is his irrational desire not to feel incompetent in front of Howon, who always seems put together and in control and a better at grifting than Myungsoo himself (Myungsoo knows Howon isn’t always puts together, knows full well the things he struggles with but this is not one of them - in comparison to the things Howon always has weighing on his mind this is insignificant).

Instead he goes to his next best option.

“Why do you think that Woohyun is so much better than me?” He asks Sungyeol conversationally one afternoon as they’re sitting in the kitchen of Sungyeol’s apartment. For reasons that Myungsoo cannot figure out Sungyeol has decided he needs to learn to cook.

Howon is a brilliant enough cook for the both of them so Myungsoo has no desire to learn, he’s basically just here to watch Sungyeol fail. And maybe have a talk whilst Sungyeol is distracted and not reading too much into it.

“At what? Cooking?” Sungyeol asks while peering down at his tablet. He has a recipe of some kind up on it and all the ingredients he supposedly needs lined up on the bench in front of him but hasn’t actually started yet. After what feels like an hour to Myungsoo he eventually responds, “I think it’s because he actually, you know. Tries to cook.”

“No, not cooking.” Myungsoo scoffs, he doesn’t want to be good at cooking because then you have six other lazy guys pestering you to cook for them. Myungsoo would rather be the lazy guy. “Woohyun’s not even that good at cooking.”

“Well no, but he’s better than you.” Sungyeol scoffs, tapping against the side of his measuring cup of flour.

“And you,” Myungsoo retorts from his position on the bench next to Sungyeol. He really does wonder how long this is going to take because he has better things to do with his life than watch Sungyeol prepare to fail.

“You don’t know,” Sungyeol scoffs, “You’ve never eaten my cooking.”

“And at this rate I’ll be so old I can’t chew anything and only eat pulverised food that tastes like baby mush before you ever cook anything,” Myungsoo tells him cheerfully.

Sungyeol look up at him, “You’re so fucking weird you know?” he asks him, “Has anyone ever told you that before?”

Myungsoo opens his mouth to respond but before he gets a chance Sungyeol is covering his mouth with his hand, “Outside of the bedroom. Please, no kinky sex details.”

Myungsoo licks Sungyeol’s hand and it’s a testament to Sungyeol that he doesn’t shriek or step back like anyone else (except probably Howon) would do, and just glares at him instead.

“What makes you think I get up to kinky sex?” Myungsoo asks, genuinely curious.

“You just have that look about you, you’re flexible and stuff” Sungyeol shrugs as if that explains anything at all. It really doesn’t. “Wait, why are we talking about sex? Do you think Woohyun is better than you at sex?”

“Please stop talking,” Myungsoo shuts his eyes. Not a thing he wants to think about right now, “You’re the one that brought sex up,” Then a thought occurs to him, “Do you have sex on the brain? Is it even _my_ flexibility in bed that we’re really talking about?”

“What is it you think Woohyun’s better at you then?” Sungyeol asks loudly.

Oh. Myungsoo remembers now what he was actually here for.

“Everything,” Myungsoo says before deciding that sounds a bit more melodramatic than he was going for, especially with the way Sungyeol’s eyebrows raise so high that they’re almost in his hair, “Well not everything but like, grifting, our job you know, that kind of stuff.”

Sungyeol watches him carefully as he puts the tablet down. Probably trying to decide how serious Myungsoo is being, if his usual attempt of sarcasm and distracting jokes will help or if he needs to do the serious talking thing (it’s one of the reasons why Sungyeol is one of Myungsoo’s favourite people on the planet).

“Why do you think that?” Sungyeol eventually asks. The neutral option a good choice.

“The other evening in our own home Howon had to call me four times before I responded to him. And it’s not like I couldn’t hear him, I just. I didn’t realise he was calling for me,” Myungsoo admits, looking down at his hands, “I forgot that Myungsoo was me.”

Sungyeol frowns, clearly confused by the direction this conversation was going, “Did Hoya mind?”

“No, he just laughed at me,” Myungsoo says, smiling a little bit at the memory. Howon was always good at helping him out when he got lost in his own head. Sungyeol opens his mouth and before he can get words out Myungsoo feels the need to jump in, “And if you ask me what the problem with that is Lee Sungyeol I will murder you with that cup of flour.”

“I wasn’t going to,” Sungyeol says defensively before frowning in thought, “Could you actually murder me with a cup of flour?”

“Do you think Hoya could do it?” Myungsoo asks with forced cheeriness. Sungyeol nods clearly without needing much time to think about it, “Well he’s taught me heaps of ways to defend myself in the time we’ve been together.”

“Okay good, I’ll make a note to keep flour well away from you and your overprotective man child then, point made,” Sungyeol says sliding said cup of flour out of Myungsoo’s reach (he doesn’t actually know how to murder someone with flour though he imagines you could suffocate someone in it. Maybe he’ll have to ask Hoya later this evening).

“I’m not sure that’d really do much good,” Myungsoo tells him matter of factly, “If Hoya really wanted to murder you he could-”

“Do it with his bare hands yes yes I am aware,” Sungyeol waves the threat away (though it wasn’t really so much of a threat as stating a fact), “Dongwoo as well. Maybe Sungjong.”

“Sungjong would probably just get Hoya to do it for him,” Myungsoo says.

“Now you’re getting Sungjong confused with yourself,” Sungyeol rolls his eyes. Well, he has a point, not that Myungsoo’s ever particularly wished anyone dead before no matter how cruel.

Sungyeol is watching him, even as they’re joking, in that discerning way of his, as if he’s trying to work out if Myungsoo has been distracted from the topic he brought up because he wants it dropped or because he’s not ready to face it (he’s not Woohyun so Sungyeol really shouldn’t need to think about it all that hard).

“I guess,” Myungsoo sighs, deciding to put Sungyeol out of his misery, “I just, it’s so easy for Woohyun to just take on and shed all these identities and I’m over here like forgetting my own name and getting aliases mixed up and almost blowing the jobs.”

“Have you ever blown a job because you got an alias mixed up?” Sungyeol asks, looking like he’s wracking his brain for an example, “And don’t say before you met me because you have no idea what Woohyun was like before either.”

“Yes,” Myungsoo says, petulantly crossing his arms over his chest. So okay maybe his more disastrous attempts were when he was just starting out and Hoya had to punch their way out of the situations - that doesn’t mean he hasn’t stuffed up since hooking up with Sunggyu; he’s not overreacting.

“Give me an example then,” Sungyeol challenges him. Stupid Sungyeol, he should have just talked to Dongwoo.

“The Before Dawn job, The White Confession Job, The Paradise job, definitely that one little job we did with NoirTech, remember that?” Myungsoo says listing off on his fingers.

“Honestly, besides the NoirTech one which was as much on Sunggyu as you,” Sungyeol says, cutting Myungsoo’s protests off with a pointed finger, “No don’t interrupt me, honestly none of this is ringing a bell so chill out.”

Myungsoo pouts because he does not appreciate his concerns being written off by Sungyeol especially since if it’s not someone getting beaten up or specifically related to his job Sungyeol barely seems to notice anything happening on jobs. Sungyeol can clearly see Myungsoo is not going to be distracted by platitudes because he sighs, “Okay, what did Hoya say?”

“When?” Myungsoo asks confused by why they’re talking about Howon again.

“When you mentioned these worries to him, and don’t tell me you didn’t because that’s just insulting my intelligence.” Sungyeol says.

Myungsoo actually hasn’t specifically told Howon his worries, especially not in regards to Woohyun, but he knows that Howon knows he struggles with keeping characters from leaking into himself - Howon has been here with him the whole way helping him learn how to do this; how to change himself into all these different people whilst still returning to himself at the end of the day.

It’s easier now than it used to be, but some days that worries Myungsoo more than anything else.

“He told me I was too focused on my failures and it was hard doing what I did,” Myungsoo answers uncrossing his arms so he can look at his hands and not Sungyeol, “and I’d only really been doing this for a short period of time so I shouldn’t stress about it.”

Howon had known Myungsoo had been comparing himself even if he’d never said as much, because Howon could see through Myungsoo always (Myungsoo wished he could say the same).

“What do you think of that?” Sungyeol asks patiently.

“It’s bullshit.” Myungsoo says, with perhaps more bitterness than he intended, “Especially coming from Howon which makes it bullshit and hypocritical.”

Sungyeol laughs at that, “It’s true.” Myungsoo mutters.

“I know it is,” Sungyeol agrees nodding his head, “But the point is Woohyun has been doing this a damn sight longer than you, Woohyun isn’t nearly as flexible as you are, and,” Sungyeol pauses for dramatic effect here, “He’s not nearly as put together as you seem to think he is.”

“That’s not true.” Myungsoo says straight away. He’s never seen Woohyun stuff up, unless you count the Paradise job and you would kind of have to be an asshole to count the Paradise job.

“Honestly Soo, watch Woohyun, really watch him,” Sungyeol says, looking Myungsoo square in the eye (Sungyeol isn’t really good at the looking people in the eye when he talks about thing so when he makes an effort to do it then it means what he has to say he considers important), “don’t watch him expecting him to be perfect, or with your green-tinted glasses on, just watch him.”

“I do watch him,” Myungsoo insists because he feels like he spends half his life watching Woohyun and wishing he was as good as Woohyun is.

“Watch him properly, with no preconceived notions,” Sungyeol scolds him, tapping him on the knee with a wooden spoon (that Myungsoo hadn’t even seen him pick up), “And you’ll see that Woohyun isn’t as perfect as you think he is, even though he’s been doing this a lot longer than you have.”

“Fine, I’ll watch him.” Myungsoo says petulantly. He doesn’t think what he sees is going to be any different than usual but then in a couple of months he’ll just get to say I told you so to Sungyeol.

“And if you’re really that bothered just ask Woohyun for tips,” Sungyeol says, picking the tablet back up and clearly deeming the ‘serious discussion’ portion of their evening done, “His ego will probably be so flattered he won’t even question why.”

“I think you’re confusing Woohyun with yourself.” Myungsoo says dryly, though that description essentially fits half this team.

Sungyeol scoffs indignantly before throwing a handful of flour at him. Myungsoo would like to say he’s above petty food fights but he so very clearly is not.

It’s safe to say Sungyeol gets no cooking done that afternoon.

(And that Myungsoo eventually notices the cracks in Woohyun’s composure. Once he has, well he really wishes for his own welfare he hadn’t. But that’s a story for another day).

 

 

♘♘♘

 

PRE DESTINY JOB : JULY 2013

 

Sungyeol is never, ever coy about reminding the team exactly how much work he does for them. He’s not wrong, he does do an awful lot of work, especially in the pre-planning phase of every job, but he definitely makes it known.

Which is why Sungjong thinks it’s odd that he’s been working so hard on something lately and not saying a word. There is of course the chance that it’s something unrelated to the team, who knows what Sungyeol gets up to in his free time, but the way Sunggyu’s always hovering around him and the way Howon is keeping a subtle eye on him imply differently.

Sungjong decides that he’s going to pay closer attention to Sungyeol. Not go out of his way or anything because he has better things to do with his time, but just watch Sungyeol when they happen to be in the same room.

He does just happen to be exploring the vents of their latest haunt though when he comes across Sungyeol and Hoya arguing over something.

“Double the work,” Sungyeol is hissing, “I don’t have time.”

“You think I’m not…” Hoya asks, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Sunggyu has no expectations … defy the laws of time and space,” Sungyeol says mirroring Hoya’s body language.

“Just physics,” Hoya retorts.

It’s odd because Sungyeol is demonstrative in his anger, yelling and swearing and generally aggressive (most of the time he’s not even truly angry is just using anger to convey his point). Right now though he and Hoya are furiously whispering at each other looking genuinely furious but not particularly angry at each other.

“Not enough time” Sungyeol is saying to Hoya - and honestly the one time Sungjong would actually not be opposed to hear some sort of drama going on around here is the day they decide to keep it discreet. 

“No good to anyone…. Fucking pass out.” Hoya says. It’s frustrating that he can’t hear properly, because Sungjong just feels like it’s something important going on, but he doesn’t dare get closer since it’s a miracle that Hoya hasn’t noticed his presence already.

Instead Sungjong files his observations away and slinks away with neither of the two any the wiser he’d been watching them.

When they (very dramatically) find out that SM is after them, and Sunggyu has known for a few months, things slot into place in Sungjong’s mind. Though Sunggyu had taken all responsibility on his own shoulders and never actually revealed anything, anyone could see that Sungyeol and Hoya already knew. It’s why World War III broke out between Hoya and Myungsoo after all, but that’s really not Sungjong’s concern.

Which means Sungyeol has probably been working on tracking SM or whatever else Sunggyu had asked of him whilst still doing the work for their actual jobs.

No wonder he’s been so overstressed.

Now that Sungjong knows, he keeps an even closer eye on Sungyeol, just in case. It would be very unfortunate if the only even vaguely technologically competent member of this team happened to overwork themselves to death (Sungjong himself is probably the second best at all the tech stuff after Sungyeol - maybe Myungsoo - and he’s really rather not end up as a hacker at the mercy of Sunggyu’s whims).

One evening, Sungjong decides he’s really had enough of this stupidity on Sungyeol’s behalf and steps in (the irony doesn’t escape him).

When Sungjong walks into the room (not dropping out of the ceiling - it’s a first for him he’s trying new things) Sungyeol doesn’t even look up at him.

Which is why Sungjong can’t be too offended when he’s mistaken for Hoya, “Hoya, I swear to god don’t get started,”

“Okay,” Sungjong says primly, causing Sungyeol to whip his head up and look at him, “But I’m not Hoya.”

“Jongie,” Sungyeol sighs, looking back at his computer screen. He’d barely even looked at Sungjong for five seconds, which Sungjong would take offence at but he’s not sure Sungyeol’s eyes could focus for more than five seconds at a time at this point, “What’s up.”

“Okay,” Sungjong declares getting up onto the table next to Sungyeol’s laptop and pushing the laptop out of Sungyeol’s reach. He protests, of course Sungyeol protests when it comes to his laptop, but not nearly as emphatically as Sungjong was expecting, “I’m not going to beat around the bush and drop weird hints I think are funny,” because he’s not sure Sungyeol is going to last that, “I’m just going to tell you I didn’t think you were this stupid.”

“What?” Sungyeol blinks up at him in confusion.

 “In this team of self-sacrificing idiots, I’d expected you to have some sense,” Sungjong says, throwing Sungyeol’s own words from earlier this year back in his face (as best he can remember - he’s sure he has the general gist right), “But when Hoya has more sense at this than you, well that’s when you know you have a problem.”

“What are you-” Sungyeol starts to protest but trails off when Sungjong sticks up a hand to interrupt him.

“When was the last time you slept Sungyeol?” Sungjong straight up asks him.

“…Recently?” Sungyeol says. It sounds more like a question than an answer.

“Which day.” Sungjong crosses his arms over his chest. Fucking self-sacrificing idiots, he really didn’t think Sungyeol was stupid enough to pull this.

“Thursday?”

“It’s Sunday.” Sungjong says. “So I’m going to say again, I didn’t think you would be this fucking stupid Sungyeol, Woohyun yes, Hoya yes, maybe even Sunggyu. But really, I thought you knew better than this or was that pretty speech you threw at me a few months ago just a crap load of do what I say not what I do.”

Sungyeol blinks at him again. Sungjong might have gotten slightly more heated than he intended but he doesn’t like hypocrites. “Sungyeol. Your brain is your skill, you are of as much use to anyone exhausted, and potentially overdosing on coffee, than I am with an injured knee.”

“It’s not the same, I’m fine,” Sungyeol insists, though the way he’s sort of leaning to the side indicates otherwise. “And my coffee is fine.”

“You’re about two cups away from giving yourself heart problems,” Sungjong says dryly (and he’s pretty sure he heard Hoya yelling at Sungyeol about his coffee consumption habits yesterday).

“Don’t exaggerate.” Sungyeol tells him managing to steady his swaying. Very reassuring.

“Go to bed Sungyeol or I will steal all your tablets and phones and computers and donate them to charity.” Sungjong essentially demands “Don’t think I won’t.”

“Why are you being so mean to me,” Sungyeol honest to god pouts. Sungjong kind of wishes he had a camera to record this for blackmail or teasing purposes. After Sungyeol has gotten a good night’s sleep of course.

“I’m not being mean to you I’m looking out for you,” Sungjong says, before deciding that sounds too revealing and adding, “and the welfare of this team. So bed before I get Hoya and Dongwoo to carry you.”

“Okay, I’m going,” Sungyeol sighs, standing up (with only a slight wobble) and walking out the room; it’s a testament to exactly how out of it he is that he leaves his laptop behind. So Sungjong lets out a sigh, picks the laptop up and follows Sungyeol to his room.

Sungjong’s not even surprised to find Sungyeol has essentially face planted on top of his bed fully dressed and seemingly fast asleep. Sungjong just rolls his eyes, puts the laptop on Sungyeol’s desk and pulls the door closed behind him.

Then he goes looking for Hoya, to see if they can pull something together to knock some sense into Sungyeol.

(And if the next morning the coffee machine has mysteriously stopped working - it won’t stop Sungyeol drinking the stuff but if it stops him having even one cup since he can’t be bothered going out and getting it when he’s working then it’s worth Woohyun’s wrath) (Not that Sungjong would ever partake in such unnecessary acts of vandalism)

 

 

 

♙♙♙

 

Woohyun really does not envy the job that Sungjong has to do for the team. He knows a lot of them think that Woohyun and Myungsoo have the worst job but he’d rather do what they do any day of the week than contort himself into impossibly small (and probably dirty) spaces and take on increasingly more dangerous stunts for Sunggyu (Woohyun still cringes when he thinks of that one near miss with the elevator).

To this end it’s not surprisingly that Myungsoo has minimal regrets about switching paths (as far as Woohyun is aware), neither is it particularly surprising that one day Sungjong has had enough.

“Okay,” he honestly says in the middle of one of Sunggyu’s briefings - it’s for a minor job, barely two days’ work - so no one’s too annoyed. In fact it’s more bemusing that Sungjong is speaking up, “You do know I’m not the only one that can crawl through a fucking vent.”

It’s a rare day that Sungjong swears at them so everyone (except Hoya) just sort of looks at him in bemusement, “Well, yes, Myungsoo can do it as well.” Sunggyu eventually says, “but he’s necessary for other parts of the plan.”

“It’s not that difficult, any of you could do it,” Sungjong crosses his arms over his chest.

“I think we will honest to god see hell freeze over or SM working towards world peace before we see Sunggyu crawling around in vents,” Sungyeol says lightly, defaulting to light humour as always.

That just draws Sungjong’s ire, “Hmm, because you would do it in a heartbeat right?” Sungjong rounds on Sungyeol.

“Well,” Sungyeol says, swallowing nervously, “I mean, I could? But no one else can do my job either so that wouldn’t be the most efficient use of resources.”

Woohyun tries not to snort at the bullshit because that would just draw Sungjong’s attention to him and that’s the last thing he wants. Not when Sungjong gets like this.

“I would like it known that I do crawl through vents on occasion,” Myungsoo raises his hand, the suck up, “And I agree with Sungjong.”

“I do not crawl through vents,” Dongwoo offers. Obviously, though that’s something Woohyun would love to see, “But I suppose I could learn for Sungjong?”

“Everyone but Hoya is going to learn how to crawl through vents, since you all seem to think it’s a terribly hard skill to master” Sungjong stands up crossing his arms over his chest. He almost looks like a child throwing a temper tantrum, but none of them would ever be stupid enough to write Sungjong off as anything like that - not if they want to see their worldly possessions ever again.

Myungsoo opens his mouth to say something before Sungjong sighs and rolls his eyes, “yes and Myungsoo who already knows.” Myungsoo nods with a happy smile.

“Why doesn’t Hoya have to do it?” Sungyeol whines, because he clearly has a death wish. Woohyun is pretty sure the boy has no sense of self preservation, “You’re playing favourites,” Woohyun would agree but Sungjong seems to love seeing Hoya embarrass himself so there must be a deeper reason there.

“Because I say so,” Sungjong snaps, hands on hips now. Woohyun expects him to start wagging his finger at any second, which would probably be a funny sight but not particularly good for any of them.

“Does Sunggyu have to do it?” Woohyun has to ask. He really doesn’t want to go crawling through vents, but if he has to do it in order to see Sunggyu have to do it then sign him the fuck up.

“Of course n-” Sunggyu starts to say before Sungjong honest to god cuts him off with a glare. Maybe they all have it wrong, maybe it’s not Dongwoo that has the most influence over Sunggyu.

“Of course he is,” Sungjong smiles brightly now he’s sure he’s got his way. Sneaky bastard.

Myungsoo raises his hand again, “Will Dongwoo be able to reach the vent?”

Dongwoo just smiles back cheerfully, “I’m sure you’d be willing to give us more vertically challenged folk a boost, right Myungsoo?”

Myungsoo pouts, folding into Hoya’s side because that clearly did not go the way he was expecting it to. Hoya laughs at him and ruffles his hair, “You walked straight into that Soo,”

“Since you don’t have to do vents you should be the official booster,” Myungsoo says to Hoya.

“You don’t have to do the vents either,” Hoya says, pinching Myungsoo on the neck (though there’s clearly no force in it).

“Myungsoo can do the vents if he wants,” Sungjong offers.

Myungsoo shakes his head vigorously, “I’d rather train with Hoya.”

“Okay, fine it’s settled. Everyone is going to have official vent crawling lessons with Sungjong,” Sunggyu says, looking mildly horrified at this point (thought whether it’s at the thought of crawling through vents or the thought of what important things Sungjong could steal from him, Woohyun can’t tell), “can we get back to business now.”

“Of course,” Sungjong says primly, sitting back down, “Now that everyone’s being reasonable, we can continue.”

The briefing and the job itself are entirely unremarkable, but Woohyun leaves it with the feeling Sungjong might just be the most manipulative of them all.

 

 

 

 

 

♔♚♔

 

POST MAN IN LOVE JOB: MAY 2013

 

 

Sunggyu knows that out of all his team he has the most set routine. He doesn’t have years on the run like the majority of them do, or just the general spontaneity of Dongwoo. He likes order and never before has his life put him in a position where routine was a dangerous thing.

SM has him on edge now though: Sungyeol’s keeping an eye on them, but they’ve been strangely quiet for a few weeks, which is not reassuring to Sunggyu. It’s also incredibly distracting and has him jumping at shadows; it’s a good thing that he hasn’t told the team about them yet despite the disapproving looks Hoya has been giving him with increasing frequency.

He thinks all of this is enough of a reason to justify the fact that when someone bumps into his shoulder one morning on his daily coffee run he just about jumps out of his skin, “Relax,” the persons whispers as they pass, “It’s just me,” they say before slipping something into his pocket and walking past.

When Sunggyu slips his hand into his pocket he can feel that it’s an earpiece, like the ones that Sungyeol uses but larger feeling. Glancing back over his shoulder as surreptitiously as possible he catches someone’s eye.

Of course it’s Hoya going through all these theatrics.

Sunggyu sighs and slips the comm in, which feels clunky and intrusive in his ear after years of being used to Sungyeol’s personal design.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Sunggyu hisses, once he has the device in his ear.

“Well,” Hoya says sounding both smug and focused, “I thought you’d like a heads up that you have a tail.”

It takes all of Sunggyu’s self-control not to stop in the middle of the street and look. He hasn’t spotted a tail but admittedly he doesn’t think he’s ever been tailed before so probably wouldn’t be able to spot anyone who wasn’t a total amateur trailing him in a crowd. “What do you mean?” He asks Hoya instead.

“There’s a man and a woman following you. They have been for the past week,”

“And you didn’t fucking tell me,” Sunggyu interrupts slightly louder than he intended. Someone turns to look at him strangely but Sunggyu has whipped his phone out and held it up to his ear so, that was a close call.

“Well they’ve been alternating, and I’ve been observing them to see what they want, what their patterns are. It was a good opportunity.” Hoya says serenely. As if he hadn’t been taking Sunggyu’s life into his hands - what if they’d been assassins out to kill him, “Oh they’re not assassins you big baby,” Hoya scoffs.

“What?” Sunggyu asks pretty sure he hadn’t said that aloud.

“Look, if SM were going to assassinate you, they’d be much more subtle about it and neither of them look like assassins, it’s a very distinct look.”Hoya says. Sunggyu supposes if he trusts anyone’s judgement of assassins it’d be Hoya, “Plus this guy at least I’ve heard whispers of though I don’t know his name. He’s less of an assassin, more of a… recruitment specialist.”

“Oh so SM want to recruit me? Excellent.” Sunggyu scoffs, as his regular coffee shop appears in his line of sight. “Do you think they’ll kill me if I refuse?”

“I think they want to recruit the whole team, not just you,” Hoya says dryly.

“Well obviously but the whole team is not being stalked by SM” Sunggyu hisses in return. As far as he’s aware, Hoya probably would have mentioned if they were.

“I don’t think they’ll kill you if you refuse. Not in public at least.” Hoya answers his question instead of biting back. Good, “I can’t say for sure though so I don’t recommend outright refusing them. Yet.”

“Okay, so I’ll just agree to join their little band of criminals,” Sunggyu scoffs. He’s weighing up all his options - whether he should continue his usual routine or confront or attempt to evade.

“You’re kind of part of a little band of criminals,” Hoya points out. Idiot.

“Yes of course because there’s no difference between us and SM.” Sunggyu tells him rolling his eyes. He decides he’s going to stick to his routine, not play his hand and let SM think they’ve taken him off guard.

“Just, I don’t know if they actually do approach you today – that would be my guess but you never know, maybe they just couldn’t decide who was on stalking duty today - say you need time to think. Consult your team,” Hoya suggests as Sunggyu enters the coffee shop. That was the same conclusion that Sunggyu had come to.

“Okay, sounds good, I’ll talk to you later.” Sunggyu says, making a show of hanging up his phone before heading to the counter to place his usual order. Sometimes he sits and drinks to escape the chaos of their headquarters, a lot of the time he just gets a coffee and leaves the simple walk there and back enough to calm him.

Today he takes a seat in a booth at the back of the shop, able to see everyone coming in and going out and he waits.

A couple of minutes after he sits he notices Hoya come in. He doesn’t look at Sunggyu, he’s too good for that, and he takes a seat with his back to Sunggyu a couple of booths over. Sunggyu won’t admit it to Hoya but it makes him feel a lot more reassured to deal with whatever SM are planning.

“Incoming,” Hoya says after what feels like an eternity but was probably only a couple of minutes, “The man and the woman that just walked in, she’s got awful sunglasses on.”

“I see them,” Sunggyu mutters under his breath. He recognises the girl, has seen her around somewhere though he doesn’t remember her name and definitely would have been able to pin her as SM without Hoya’s help. The guy on the other hand he’s never seen before, but he takes Hoya’s word that he’s a recruitment specialist.

They take a few minutes to sort themselves out, make it seem less suspicious but ultimately they set their sights on Sunggyu.

“Kim Sunggyu,” The man calls with a bright smile on his face, “Long time no see.”

“I think you must be confused.” Sunggyu says as blandly as possible, suddenly very glad that Hoya had decided to trail him, “I don’t think we’ve ever met before.”

“Still as much of a joker as ever,” The man says, elbowing the girl he’s with as they stop in front of Sunggyu’s booth. Sunggyu would hardly consider himself a joker.

“Can I help you with something?” Sunggyu asks.

“Okay,” The man says dropping all pretences of niceness, as he sits in the booth opposite Sunggyu, “If that’s how you want to do it fine.”

“I don’t want to do anything,” Sunggyu says hoping to annoy him and buy himself some time to think, “I don’t know you.”

The man’s eyebrows rise straight into his hair as the girl sits down next to him more hesitantly, “You don’t know us?”

“I have no idea who you are.” Sunggyu tells him. He’s not even lying.

The man looks personally offended by that, which is good. Woohyun always says as soon as you insult someone’s ego you’ve got the upper hand, and Sunggyu trusts Woohyun’s judgement when it comes to situations like this.

“I know you’re lying because I know you’ve come across Jessica before,” The man says with a smug smile. He’s just played in Sunggyu’s hands though.

“Oh I know who Jessica is,” Sunggyu says smoothly, even though he’d not remembered her name, “I just don’t know who you are.” Sunggyu can practically see the man seethe.

The man continues to glower at him, but then Jessica places a hand on his arm, “Donghae, that’s kind of the point,” she tells him quietly, though quite obviously still loud enough that Sunggyu is meant to hear it. She’s good, but she’s no Woohyun.

“Are you here to flaunt your ego?” Sunggyu asks, “Or were you just in the area?”

“We have an offer for you,” Jessica says soothingly. It’s an interesting play, he assumes she’s trying to put him at ease and force him to underestimate her.

“What kind of offer?” He asks. They’ve essentially worked out what the offer is, but even if they’re wrong whatever it is he’s sure he’s not going to like it.

“You’ve put a good team together,” Donghae says, sliding a folder across the table towards him, “An unconventional team of loners and yet you managed to get them to work together. That takes skill.”

Sunggyu flips the folder open hesitantly. He’s greeted with pictures of every member of his team with the exception of Hoya during their last job. Their names are written underneath and there’s a little summary of everything they know along with a blank space that simply says Hoya - Grifter. Sunggyu notices that Myungsoo’s picture only has an L underneath it so at least Sungyeol’s intel about what exactly they did and didn’t know so far seemed to be accurate

“Well, I’m sure you’re aware who our employers are,” Donghae says.

“I’m not sure I am,” Sunggyu says. Playing dumb is the best strategy here - make them play their hand without even hinting at his. It’s the only advantage he has because in terms of resources and connections SM will outweigh them every day of the week.

“SM has a proposal for you,” Donghae sighs in exasperation.

“You’ve been pulling off some excellent jobs,” Jessica compliments, tapping her fingers on the table in a way that makes Sunggyu think she doesn’t particularly want this assignment, “The one in Seoul was really quite spectacular. We need people like you, ruthless.”

Sunggyu watches over her shoulder as Hoya’s shoulders stiffen. He sighs, “Are you offering me a job?”

“You already have a job, one you’re doing a damn fine job of.” Donghae says as Jessica continues to tap the same rhythm over and over, “What we’re offering is more of a, partnership, you could say.”

“A partnership?” Sunggyu asks levelly.

“Yes. Keep doing what you’re doing, running your team how you see fit, we won’t stop you, we’ll just give you resources. Money. Equipment. Connections to keep you out of jail.” He’s jumping straight to the point, pulling a hard sell like a trained sales man.

“The catch?” Sunggyu asks because of course there’s a catch. The catch will be SM’s interference, taking the jobs they want. Selling their souls to the kinds of people they’re out to take down.

At least this has confirmed in Sunggyu’s mind that SM have no idea the kind of work they do - just think they’re going after the money.

“No catch,” Jessica says in potentially the least convincing voice he’s ever heard.

“SM would just recommend high value targets you might be interested in every now and then,” Donghae says. As if SM wouldn’t insist on them taking out their enemies or whoever they wanted to target, “that’s all.”

“You mean besides the part where I’m sure SM takes a large chunk of our profits?” Sunggyu asks. For people saying they have a huge regard for Sunggyu’s team and the work he’s ding they sure do seem to think he’s stupid.

“Well of course they would require a return on their investment,” Jessica says diplomatically, still tapping her fingers “But that is to be expected of course.”

“That’s the way society works I suppose,” Sunggyu says. Except that’s the very thing about society this team is trying to … not change, society can’t be changed by seven people, but make a bit less shitty for some people.

“Exactly,” Donghae smiles a very menacing smile at him, “So what do you say.”

“I say I should take your offer to my team first,” Sunggyu says. He won’t of course, he’ll refuse them, this will just give him a few days to think (because SM will not take rejection well he knows that for certain), “Because if I make any decision without consulting them I’m sure I’d be without a team.”

Sunggyu can hear Hoya’s laughter through the comms in his ear.

“Fair enough.” Jessica tilts her head in an accommodating manner. Donghae’s mouth twists unpleasantly but he doesn’t protest, “Take your time.”

“But not too much time,” Donghae interjects. He can see why they’ve been sent together, they’ve got the whole good cop bad cop routine down pat, and he can’t imagine Donghae is very effective on his own. Unless he’s presumably intimidating young kids into joining up with them.

“Of course not,” Sunggyu says smoothly. Then, “Is there anything else I can help you with.”

They thankfully take the cue. “We’ll be in contact,” Jessica tells him with a smile that would probably be pleasant if it didn’t have such obviously sinister undertones, before they’re off.

Sunggyu gives them ten minutes to be truly gone before he pulls his phone out to fake a call and talk to Hoya, “Well, that could have gone better.”

“Could have gone worse, at least you’re not dead.” Hoya supplies jokingly. Why does he keep him around again.

“What’s your take on that?” Sunggyu asks, getting up and walking out to continue the conversation. Walking on the street means he’s less likely to be overheard because everyone’s moving. They’re also talking in Korean as a precaution for any passers-by.

“Don’t do it.” Hoya says straight away. It’s not particularly helpful because Sunggyu wasn’t going to agree, “Did you notice Jessica’s fingers.”

“Tapping out the inane beat?” Sunggyu asks with a sigh, rubbing his eyes, “Yes I noticed, it was hard not to.”

“It was Morse code.” Hoya says. Of course Hoya knows fucking Morse code.

“She was sending me subliminal messages in Morse code?” Sunggyu asks sceptically. It seems antiquated, from what he knows about SM.

“She was tapping ‘don’t do it’ onto the table over and over again.” Hoya says

“Yes well, if I had any plans of joining up with them before,” Sunggyu says (he didn’t - he has a conscience), “the person coming to recruit me essentially telling me not to would certainly end those.”

“If you knew Morse code,” Hoya points out. He doesn’t need the sass right now.

“Okay, I suppose now is the point where we need to tell the team.” Sunggyu says. He’s glad he didn’t - the last job was messy enough with the fake marriage, they didn’t need to throw SM into the mix - but he’s not going to enjoy telling the team about this.

“Well I’d say the point we should have told the team was three months ago,” Hoya says, unable to let things go even when they’re no longer relevant, “but yes we’ve reached the point where if you don’t tell them I will.”

“Okay, here’s what we’ll do then,” Sunggyu says, trying to work out the logistics in his head, “I’ll go to a safe house just in case I’m being tailed and we can have a Skype conversation, figure it out.”

Hoya scoffs, “No fucking way.”

“Excuse me?” Sunggyu asks, taken a back.

“I am not letting you escape the inevitable annoyance at your secrecy, and have them channel it at me because you’re not physically there. You made the decision, you can suffer the fall out.” Hoya says matter-of-factly. He’s right though at least Hoya and Sungyeol, always the first to voice their displeasure with him, know already and won’t start a riot. Woohyun could cause some trouble though, and Myungsoo if he doesn’t know (Sunggyu’s pretty sure that Hoya must have told him despite what he says otherwise).

“Fine. We’ll tell Sungyeol tonight, let him do a bit more digging, and the rest of the team tomorrow then,” Sunggyu says. Time to mentally prepare for the fall out. He might also need to rearrange (or completely overhaul) his plans for jobs for the next few months.

“Sounds fun.” Hoya says sarcastically.

Isn’t that the truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know nothing about Super Junior I just picked a random member's name.


	9. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for this being late, I've had some personal stuff to deal with and my beta has a life and a couple of scenes in this chapter needed more work than usual editing wise.
> 
> It's here though and it's still Sunday somewhere in the world ( I'm getting university assignment deadline flashbacks) and last weeks chapter was early so it all balances.

_You're the closest thing I've ever had to a real friend and, and...I've never heard you say my real name. How sad is that?_

 

♘♘♘

POST COMEBACK AGAIN JOB - JULY 2010

 

 

When Sungjong comes back to the place he currently calls home from one of Sunggyu’s ridiculous team briefings, about a week after the disastrous Comeback Again Job, he notices straight away that not everything is how he left it. 

The leaf that had fallen off his potted plant as he’d left this morning has disappeared from where it fell on his welcome mat, which itself is at a slight angle when it had been perfectly straight this morning.

Someone has been in his house. 

That’s confirmed when he opens the door himself and finds the leaf kicked aside in the middle of the entrance hall. 

He walks deeper into the house, pretty sure he knows what he’s going to find. It’s why he’s not surprised to find Hoya sitting in his living room reading a book off his bookshelf. 

“Fancy seeing you here,” Sungjong says. He was expecting Hoya a couple of days ago but he supposes that was a bit of wishful thinking - Hoya has always been ridiculously careful. 

“Your home isn’t very secure Jongie,” Hoya looks up at him with a cheerful grin, “Any old lunatic could have broken in.”

“I knew someone was here, and  _you_  left your signal. Trust me, if you hadn’t I’d have never shown my face here again,” Sungjong rolls his eyes, knowing that Hoya is very well aware of this, it was his routines and habits that Sungjong had picked up after all.

“Stay vigilant always.” Hoya nods in approval, “Proud of you.”

“I don’t do it for you approval,” Sungjong says dryly, taking a seat opposite of Hoya, “I do it to stay alive and out of jail.” 

“Two very good reasons, though not as good as my approval of course,” Hoya jokes with a nod, “And speaking of jail,” He grins here as if it’s the best joke he’s heard all week, “Imagine my surprise when I learned that Lee Sungjong had gotten himself caught. There is a first time for everything of course, but I still had to do a quick check that hell had not frozen over.” 

“Fuck you hyung,” Sungjong says, the honorific slipping out around Hoya as it often does no matter how many times he’s tried to stop himself, “I’d have been able to get myself out of there fine, I just didn’t think Sunggyu would have liked it if I had done it my way.”

“Yeah,” Hoya says. His face changes just slightly, it’s so barely noticeable but Sungjong  _knows_  Hoya, so he knows that he doesn’t really understand why he’s working with Sunggyu at the moment - probably doesn’t approve of it either. 

“It’s a new challenge,” Sungjong explains the question that he knows Hoya isn’t going to ask him, “Expanding my horizons.”

“This is you, Lee Sungjong,” Hoya laughs just slightly, “I’m surprised it took you this long to move on.”

 “I like stealing things, I’m good at it.” Sungjong admits easily. He likes how simple it is most of the time, though the odd challenge every now and then is good to stretch his brain, likes how everyone, no matter how much money they invest in their security, always commits the same fatal flaws.  

“That you are, but your conscience caught up to you?” The way that Hoya asks it makes it very clear what he think the answer to that will be.  

“Most people with enough money worth stealing from are not people who deserve my sympathy,” Sungjong says. There might be decent and kind wealthy people out there but Sungjong has never met or come across one.  

“Fair enough,” Hoya shrugs, “So what is it then?”

“I want to work on my team building skills,” Sungjong retorts sarcastically. 

“Point taken,” Hoya shrugs. Their relationship has never been one that involves interrogations or prying questions, rather it was built on silent support (and multiple fist fights on Hoya's behalf at least).

“So that was Myungsoo?” Sungjong has to ask since Hoya has seemed to drop the previous topic and there’s no better time to bring it up. 

“Obviously Jongie,” Hoya says. Sungjong does not appreciate the way he’s rolling his eyes at him - he makes a mental note to steal Hoya's phone next time they work a job together, “I’m surprised you didn’t figure it out straight away. Your skills are slipping.”

Sungjong sneers. Perhaps he should have realised that the boy was Myungsoo, but he’d been too busy worrying Hoya had been compromised. He doesn’t tell Hoya that though; instead he retorts “I thought he was a thief.” 

He’d heard of Kim Myungsoo through his contacts well before Hoya had practically adopted the boy, though he’d never met him. 

“He was.” Hoya says simply. 

“But?” Sungjong says, waiting for Hoya to elaborate. He finds himself curious despite himself. 

“Well not everyone can be as graceful and flexible as you,” Hoya says. 

“Flattery will get you a slap,” Sungjong says matter-of-factly. He’s not looking for bad jokes (which Howon has in spades) he’s looking for answers so he can mentally recalibrate.

“He isn’t,” Hoya insists, before rubbing at his forehead, “He’s not exactly clumsy but he’s prone to fits of being really fucking clumsy. It fucked him up on a job a few years ago, I’m sure you’d heard about that.”

Sungjong inclines his head because he had heard about it - it’s what surprised him most when he heard that Hoya had hooked up with Myungsoo, the idea that Myungsoo was still in the game (that Myungsoo was still  _alive_ ).  

“Well, we’ve improved his reflexes a bit but we discovered he’s good at the grifting stuff so we worked on that,” Hoya explains, offering more to Sungjong that he would to anyone else. Except maybe Myungsoo now. Interesting, “It’s not like he doesn’t steal things if we need them, but we wouldn’t class him as a thief anymore.”

Sungjong doesn’t comment on Hoya's telling choice in words. He doesn’t comment on the fact Hoya has given him information that could be used against the pair. It doesn’t matter because he would never and Hoya knows that.

 “Interesting,”

 “Not as interesting as your grifter.” Hoya smiles that sharp smile of his, “Nam Woohyun working in a team? That is a new one.”

 “Well he’s working  _with_  the team.” Sungjong comments dryly, “For now.”

“Yeah,” Hoya says in a bland way that reveals exactly how he feels about that. Sungjong hadn’t thought Hoya had ever crossed paths with Woohyun before but maybe he’s wrong, “Let me know how long that lasts.”

“Yeah, well I didn’t think you and Myungsoo would last nearly as long as you have done, yet here we are,” Sungjong says with a little shrug, unable to help himself turning the conversation back to this most intriguing relationship, “Really I never thought you would get to this point.”

“What point?” Hoya asks with a flippant indifference that says so very much more than Hoya ever could himself, “The not drowning in self-loathing part? The being able to work with other people part?” 

“The, not getting bored of Myungsoo part,” Sungjong admits honestly. His favourite thing about Hoya has always been how brutally honest they could be with each other, “I mean isn’t he a bit … for your tastes?”

“A bit what?” Hoya asks, sounding more curious than particularly offended. 

“Cute, defenceless, naive, spacey,” Sungjong counts off on his fingers. He’s only met the guy once but, he was pretty out of it, and of course the grapevine has many stories to tell about Kim Myungsoo (the grapevine also thought he was … out of the game though so perhaps it wasn’t the most accurate source of information).

 “You of all people should know, Sungjong, what you see isn’t necessarily what you get.” Hoya says serenely.  Sungjong’s not sure what to do with this new, calmer version of Howon, maybe Myungsoo does have some benefits after all thought it all feels a bit alien. Like he’s twelve years old again.

“What you  _see_  and how someone projects themselves are two separate things,” Sungjong says. At this point this is more of a philosophical discussion than any kind of argument. 

“Which is an entirely separate thing from who you are,” Hoya is smirking now. Idiot. “He is a grifter as we’ve established.” 

“Mmm,” Sungjong could push it, say he’s yet to be convinced of his skills but he doesn’t, instead he says what he’s really been trying to figure out, “Either way it’s a bit of a change to go from Kim Hyuna to, well Kim Myungsoo.” Sungjong says.

He doesn't want details of what happened there; it’s been a couple of years, and there are things about Hoya and what Hoya has done he really doesn’t want to know. He just wants to know that his oldest friend is okay now.

“Well,” Hoya says dryly, closing up just slightly (probably unnoticeable to anyone else - but no one else would have seen Hoya so open), “I was under the impression you hated Hyuna.”

“Hate is a strong word,” Sungjong says diplomatically. 

Hate isn’t a strong enough word - Sungjong despised Hyuna and everything he (assumed) that Hoya got up to with her.

“Hate is an accurate word, it’s fine, no need to spare my feelings you’ve never bothered with that before,” Hoya says with a little smile, “She’s not… I haven’t seen her.” Hoya admits, “But she and her new partner haven’t tried to  _kill_  me so. I assume everything there is all square.” 

“One day someone is going to be successful in killing you,” Sungjong says. Or your new puppy, he doesn’t add.

“You know what Jongie?” Hoya asks with a sigh, that mask he carries around with him so often he probably wears it when he’s alone cracking minutely, “Sometimes I think whoever’s good enough to get the drop on me deserves it.” 

As always Sungjong’s blood runs cold when Hoya speaks like that, though it’s not nearly the worst he’s heard from him. 

“Any more of that self-pitying nonsense hyung, and I’ll be the one to do it myself,” Sungjong tells him with a light slap to the head for good measure, “And I’m not obtaining custody of the puppy afterwards.”

“How did you know we have a puppy?” Hoya asks him in confusion. The very real shock Sungjong feels at that must show on his face (Hoya comfortable enough anywhere to adopt an animal?) because Hoya is then laughing at him full on doubled over, “Oh my god you should have seen your face, is the thought of me having a pet that surprising?”

“An animal pet? Yes.” Sungjong says fighting the urge to actually smack Hoya, “A human pet? You can’t go without one.”

 “Yes, but you were my first,” Hoya says slinging an arm around Sungjong’s shoulder and pulling him into his side. Sungjong will allow it, just from Hoya, just this once, “And you’ll always be my favourite.” 

“I don’t know hyung,” Sungjong says, teasing but deadly serious, “I’m not sure after everything I’ve seen I want to be your favourite.”

Hoya just laughs, and it’s the most content Sungjong has felt in a while.

 

 

 

♙♙♙

 THE MAN IN LOVE JOB : MARCH 2013

 

It’s the day after Sunggyu has dropped the bombshell that is the Man in fucking Love job on them that Sungyeol, with great glee, calls Woohyun and Myungsoo together to ‘work on their aliases.’ He probably just wants another opportunity to gloat or laugh or whatever it is he does with his spare time. 

“Why do you want our input for identities,” Woohyun asks as he follows Sungyeol into the study he’s essentially turned into his working cave, “I thought you derived enjoyment out of making them as ludicrous and distasteful as possible.”

“Well, I mean..” Sungyeol shrugs which is practically an admission, “But this situation provides enough amusement on my end that I think I’m quite content to let you have a bit of a say this time.” 

“You’re too kind,” Woohyun drawls as he sits in the only armchair that Sungyeol keeps in the room.

“Kindness and compassion are my most commendable qualities,” Sungyeol says with much more sarcasm that the words actually need.  

Woohyun’s saved from having to respond by Myungsoo and Hoya traipsing into the room laughing about fuck knows what. Something dumb Hoya said almost certainly.

“What are you doing here?” Woohyun asks Hoya. It hadn’t escaped his notice (even Sunggyu had noticed) how amusing Hoya found the whole situation, which is not exactly what Woohyun was really up to dealing with at the moment. Or ever.

“If you cast your mind back half a day,” Hoya says dryly, leaning against the edge of the desk that Sungyeol has all his computers set up on, “You’ll remember I also need an alias.”

Myungsoo, meanwhile, wastes no time in draping himself all over Sungyeol, all long arms and limbs like the human-squid hybrid Woohyun is starting to believe he might very well be.

“I’m being efficient, Woohyun,” Sungyeol smirks. Maybe Woohyun will be able to talk (or bribe) Sungjong into stealing his phone later or something. He can always dream. 

“Fine, whatever,” Woohyun sighs, “Can we just get this started. And finished?”

“I would love to,” Sungyeol says looking up in a failed attempt to lock eyes with Myungsoo who is still clinging to him like a barnacle, “But I can’t use the computer when I’ve have a parasitic Myungsoo attached to me,” Sungyeol says with a long suffering sigh. Hoya chuckles.  

“It’s okay, we’re just brainstorming anyway.” Myungsoo says matter-of-factly, “I’ll move when you need to use your hands.” 

“Well if you’re not going to let me use my hands will you at least pick that piece of paper up for me,” Sungyeol says nodding his head towards a loose leaf sheet with scribbles all over it. Why Sunggyu chose to still hand write everything out, Woohyun will never know. 

“What is it?” Myungsoo asks curiously, handing it off to Hoya.

“Sunggyu’s list of requirements for the alias’,” Hoya says reading through it with a smirk, “Look at this. He’d prefer you were married for at least two years, he’d prefer if one of you was still in university doing a Masters or something to seem educated, as cultured as possible, and at least one of you has to perfect your English accent, wow he’s really going all out.” 

“Actually this is pretty tame for Sunggyu’s usual list of long term alias demands,” Sungyeol says with a sigh. Once again Woohyun is very glad he’s not Sungyeol, “Says he wants this to be as authentic as possible.”

“With a double sided A4 page of demands,” Hoya snorts waving the list around. 

“Yeah, a quarter of the usual size.” Sungyeol shakes his head. 

“Okay, where do we start then?” Woohyun asks, stopping Sungyeol before he gets stuck into a rant about how much Sunggyu takes him for granted or something. 

“Start big work smaller, is the way I usually go about it,” Sungyeol shrugs as much as he can with Myung-koala attached to him “But if you guys want to do it differently be my guest." 

Woohyun gets the feeling Sungyeol is glad all the brainstorming isn’t left in his court this time.  

“Big works for us,” Hoya says, apparently speaking for him and Myungsoo together. Again. 

“Alright so marriage it is then,” Sungyeol says with a grin. 

“Sunggyu literally told us at the briefing we had to be married,” Woohyun sighs rubbing at his eyes to prevent a headache coming on - it never actually works but he can hope one day it does. “I’m not sure we have much room to consider,”

“He’d probably accept engaged.” Sungyeol shrugs. 

“Yeah but then we’d have to pretend to be planning a wedding and if anything that sounds even more unpleasant.” Surprisingly that’s Myungsoo voicing his opposition again. Generally he’s pretty affable to whatever Sunggyu puts him up to, so Woohyun’s not really sure what his problem is this time.

 “Okay, married, it’s settled, what’s next.” Woohyun says ready to move on to hopefully more pleasant details.

“Well I mean you’ve got to decide an anniversary so I can put together marriage certificates and such.” Sungyeol says. Or not moving on then.

“Plus where could we have gotten married in 2011?” Woohyun asks because it sure has heck couldn’t have been London. Unless Sunggyu is counting some sort of civil ceremony as essentially married.

“Sweden,” Hoya and Myungsoo answer immediately and in scary unity.

Woohyun and Sungyeol both turn to them with eyebrows raised. There was no thought put into that, is the thing, none at all. 

“How do you know that?” Woohyun has to ask, wondering if the two of them are finally going to be caught off guard, let something slip (it seems unlikely). 

“For a job,” Hoya says smoothly. Damn.

If Hoya’s telling the truth, if they were fake married for a job, then Woohyun should probably feel quite insulted Myungsoo is so adamantly opposed to the idea of fake marrying him.

He's not particularly bothered though so he takes the high road and doesn’t bring it up. Also he really wants to get this over and done with. 

 “Okay then, married in Sweden in 2011, anything else?”

“Well, I kind of need a wedding date,” Sungyeol says dryly, “So I can lodge your fake marriage certificate and everything.”

Myungsoo and Woohyun look at each other, before Myungsoo looks away first and suggests quietly, “What about January 6.”

 The significance of the date doesn’t escape Woohyun’s notice, “I like that.” He says with a nod. Myungsoo looks back at him and shoots him the shyest smile Woohyun’s ever seen from him, Woohyun can’t help but return it.  

“Okay, January 6th 2011 in Stockholm,” Sungyeol pauses, “we need names.”

“Who’s going to be the British one?” Hoya asks, “Because I can confirm that Myungsoo’s English accent is shit.”

“I’ll do it then,” Woohyun says. His English accent is nothing to write home about but it really doesn’t bother him.

“I’ll be Canadian,” Myungsoo says exchanging a  _look_  with Hoya that’s loaded with so much something that Woohyun doesn’t want to know. Or they’re doing that thing where they’re pretending to have a significant moment when it’s really some terrible show they watched on television last night that they’re both thinking of.

“I’ll start with Woohyun then, since I have a couple of identities for him that I can tweak a little instead of starting anew.” Sungyeol is talking out loud but Woohyun really gets the impression that he’s actually just talking to himself and doesn’t require any input from the rest of them. 

“Soo, you’re going to have to get off me now,” Sungyeol says, gentler than he would for probably anyone else, “Since I need arm movement to do my job.” 

“Okay,” Myungsoo says with a pout before detaching himself from Sungyeol and going over to where Hoya is standing. He sits on the desk, before leaning back against Hoya straight away; he’s essentially using their hitter’s chest as a back rest at this point.

Hoya gives him a weird look, which is probably a first, but apart from that doesn’t say anything on the subject.

“Can I be the university student?” Myungsoo asks in a smaller voice than Woohyun has heard him use in a long time.  

Woohyun doesn’t know if Myungsoo expects to fight him for that honour or something, but he’s done the higher education thing before and he has no desire to do it again, “why?” 

“I’ve always wanted to try university,” Myungsoo says with a self-deprecating shrug, “I’ve just never got to.”

Woohyun’s torn between feeling that twinge of sympathy whenever Myungsoo admits to how meaningless his life had been before and also wondering why anyone would want to go to school.

“Well sure, be my guest.” Woohyun says. He’s really not complaining.  

“What is it that Sunggyu wants him to be doing?” Hoya asks, “Because there’s got to be some sort of expertise he’s trying to establish by making Soo do a Masters.” 

“You know you’d think he’d give me more information beyond, ‘university student’” Sungyeol says with a long suffering sigh “Since there’s clearly a reason he wants someone as a university student, but if it’s not on that list of notes I don’t know.”

“Something business related, get him in as a protégé for Declan Harris, make him like a malleable young mind or something.” Hoya suggests. 

“That is,” Sungyeol says looking at him consideringly, “Probably a better idea than whatever Sunggyu has planned.” 

“Like you don’t know what Sunggyu has planned,” Myungsoo pipes up. As much as Sungyeol bitches and moans about all the extra work Sunggyu makes him do, he clearly enjoys it. Enjoys being in the know as the two of them do their plotting together.

“I don’t.” Sungyeol looks frustrated enough that it’s probably the truth. For once.

“Okay, business it is for now then.” Hoya says with a shrug, “Okay with you Soo?”

“Sure.” Myungsoo shrugs.

“Well then who is going to do his thesis or whatever it is for him?” Sungyeol asks teasingly, “Make it seem like he actually knows something about anything?” 

“Isn’t that your job?” Woohyun can’t help himself asking, “as tech support.”

Myungsoo giggles at that. Sungyeol scowls, “I’ll show you tech support you ungrateful bastard.”

Woohyun only narrowly escapes the scrunched up ball of paper aimed at his face, which Hoya, unsurprisingly, manages to catch before it hits the ground, and without dislodging Myungsoo, which is probably the more impressive feat. He arches an eyebrow as he smoothes the paper flat, Sunggyu’s spidery scrawl reminding them they’ve only covered point 2 of 26 listed. 

Something tells Woohyun this is going to be a very long afternoon.

 

 

♔♚♔

 

 

“You know,” Dongwoo says to Sunggyu one evening completely out of the blue. The rest of the team are off doing whatever it is they do with their spare time - Sunggyu doesn’t want to know - so Dongwoo had insisted that the two of them watch a movie together like old times, even though they’d never been ones for movies back when, “Do you ever wonder what story they made up?” 

Dongwoo is prone to saying some bizarre and out of the blue things but after over ten years, Sunggyu usually has at least some idea what the heck he’s talking about. Right now he’s lost. To anyone else he might give a sarcastic answer, but it’s Dongwoo so he just asks a neutral “What?”

“I wonder what story they made up for  _us_.” Dongwoo repeats as if that makes everything he’s saying suddenly make sense. It doesn’t, but Sunggyu might have an idea of what he’s trying to say now. 

“The people we left behind?” Sunggyu asks, just to make sure they really are on the same page here.

“Yeah, I wonder what they tell themselves and others,” Dongwoo says, laying his head on the back of the couch and staring up at the ceiling, “How they justify the way we went from the so called right side of the law to the wrong one.”

Sunggyu has always had a vague idea about what they probably said about him, but in the years he’s been away he’s never really thought about it. The only person from that time whose opinion that mattered to him is sitting right beside him. 

Dongwoo on the other hand had been a bit of a social butterfly, friends with everyone. No wonder he thought about it more.  

“Probably something outlandish.” Sunggyu says trying to dismiss the topic without sounding dismissive of Dongwoo. This is a road they probably don’t want to go down, because indulged absent-minded curiosity leads to burning curiosity. 

“Yeah, I mean, it would have to be for their ‘Golden boy’,” Dongwoo grins at him teasingly - he’d always gotten a kick out of that name because he’d told Sunggyu it was a funny contrast with how he was seen by his team - “To go rogue and criminal.”

“Maybe they went with a drama plot or something,” Sunggyu finds himself offering despite himself, “Like we were always evil thieves infiltrating the government.” 

“For what reason?” Dongwoo asks with a frown. 

“Do we need a reason - no one in the dramas ever has a legitimate reason,” Sunggyu says with a shrug, “Maybe we were raised to be North Korean spies.”

“If we were North Korean spies wouldn’t we have defected to North Korea?” Dongwoo asks lazily, “Instead of stealing stuff.” 

“I mean, maybe North Korea is sending their spies to steal things as a way to fund their regime now I don’t actually know, I’m not a North Korean spy.” Sunggyu shrugs, turning his body towards Dongwoo on the couch and away from the TV. He’s not even sure what they’re watching, some dumb action movie that Dongwoo and Hoya like so much. 

“Your story isn’t very good.” Dongwoo tells him matter-of-factly.

Sunggyu rolls his eyes, “It’s not meant to be good. And it’s not my theory. It’s my theory on their theory.”

 

“Well your theory on their theory isn’t very good either.” Dongwoo says as he sits up faces Sunggyu himself, crossing his legs over each other.

 “Alright then, what’s your thought then?” Sunggyu challenges playfully. 

He’s not sure if Dongwoo is going to keep the conversation going with outlandish theories or be serious. Sunggyu would prefer the outlandish theory option because he’s too thoroughly exhausted for emotional conversations and picking his words carefully, but if that’s the way Dongwoo wants to take it he’s not asshole enough to stop him.

“Alien abduction?” Dongwoo suggests. 

“Because that’s more likely than North Korean spies,” Sunggyu snorts. Although half this team being aliens would honestly make a huge deal of sense. 

“Hypnotism, mind control, an undercover mission in a huge crime syndicate so deep no one knows about it, someone murdered us and stole our identity.” Dongwoo lists off with a great deal of enthusiasm.

“Are you … are you now equating us with our targets now?” Sunggyu asks sceptically.

“We’ve had some very interesting targets,” Dongwoo muses, “Maybe we should develop a drama based off of them.” 

“I’m sure everyone would love to finance the project of wanted criminals,” Sunggyu says dryly. He’s not wrong though, it would probably be an interesting show.

“We’ll use aliases.” Dongwoo says, the duh going unsaid. 

“Of our murder victims?” Sunggyu can’t help asking.

Dongwoo nods eagerly, “Now you’re getting it. We’ll become rich, and famous.” 

“I’m not sure you would know what to do with any more money,” Sunggyu says, since Dongwoo is the one that spends the least of their proceeds. Sunggyu believes he sends some of it to his family but not a huge amount because he doesn’t want to place them under suspicion, “Or infamy.” 

“Yeah, but we could have Myungsoo and Woohyun play themselves. Or even better we could have Myungsoo play Hoya and Woohyun play… Sungjong!” Dongwoo says getting way too into this hypothetical idea.

Woohyun trying to be Sungjong is a pretty funny mental image, though Myungsoo’s version of Hoya will never be anything to laugh about.

As suddenly as he’d gotten into all his ridiculous theories though, Dongwoo sobers up, “They probably just said we were turned by the money right? Sold out our morals.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much what they said,” Sunggyu says with a sigh. He’s had Sungyeol look into it for him, once or twice, especially after The Chaser Job.

How anyone who had ever met Dongwoo could believe he’d sell out his morals for money Sunggyu doesn’t know, but he knows first-hand it takes a certain type of ignorance to believe in the law so, so stringently. To value order above the right thing.  

“That’s the official line at least, I’m not sure if everyone buys it or not,” Sunggyu says, not wanting Dongwoo to think that all their old friends believed the worst in them.

“I suppose it doesn’t really matter what they think though, does it?” Dongwoo asks eventually after a long silence. 

“Sorry?” Sunggyu asks, understanding but wanting Dongwoo to expand his point more (god now his inner monologue sounds like a freaking teacher). 

“Well we’re never going to see them again right? And whatever they believe is probably wrong, so it’s not like what they think of us has any effect on who we are,” Dongwoo says sounding very sure of himself. He’s always had a straightforward and encouraging view of the world though - it’s why Sunggyu had gravitated towards him all those years ago. 

Dongwoo simplifies the things that don’t need to be as hard as Sunggyu tends to make them.

“Exactly,” Sunggyu smiles. After all, Dongwoo had called them friends; to Sunggyu most of them had just been colleagues.  

“Besides,” Dongwoo nods, settling the subject (Sunggyu’s not entirely sure why he brought it up in the first place), “I like this new group of people much better anyway.” 

Sunggyu would never say it out loud (judging by the way Dongwoo is smiling at him he doesn’t have to) but he would have to agree.

 

 

♖♖♖

 POST BEFORE THE DAWN JOB: FEBRUARY 2011

 

It’s not until the dust has settled on the Before Dawn Job that the topic of Myungsoo’s name becomes something to think about.

After the arguments have been had, Sunggyu has chewed Myungsoo out, and Woohyun and Myungsoo seem to have reached some sort of uneasy peace (although maybe they’ve just come to a mutual understanding to play nice - Dongwoo doesn’t understand grifters), they come together to ‘debrief’ as Sunggyu calls it. 

Except they’ve never had a debrief for a job before, so they all know it’ll be talking about Myungsoo and where he fucked up.

“Okay,” Sunggyu says once they’re all settled in their living room (squeezed in to fit - next place they go Dongwoo’s insisting they upscale), “I think we all know why we’re here.” 

“To debrief on the job, right?” Hoya asks with a cocked eyebrow, hand protectively resting on Myungsoo’s knee, “Or have you just lured us here under false pretences.”

 “Oh we’re here to debrief alright,” Woohyun mutters to Dongwoo’s right, “debrief on how fucking insane Myungsoo is.”

Okay, so maybe they haven’t made up completely yet.

“To debrief on some… revelations, made during the job,” Sunggyu says, being the most diplomatic Dongwoo has seen him be, well ever.

“You mean the fact Myungsoo has a name?” Hoya asks challengingly. Kind of like a guard dog or something, Dongwoo thinks, “Who’d have thought?”

“You know everything there is to know about us,” Woohyun challenges, though Dongwoo would say that’s a vast exaggeration, “And you wouldn’t even tell us your names.”

“Myungsoo hasn’t used that name in a very long time,” Hoya says though he’s slightly calmer now, with Myungsoo’s hand hooked into his elbow, “Why does it matter to you.”

“Four years,” Myungsoo says softly. Sungjong frowns, Dongwoo supposes this is one of those things criminals just know.

“Soo,” Hoya says, looking at Myungsoo in that weird way the two of them have of communicating, “You don’t owe them anything,” 

“Yes I do.” Myungsoo says, and honestly if the two of them could be a little less intimate it would be appreciated, it’s making Dongwoo feel uncomfortable.

They have one of those silent eye conversations again before Hoya inclines his head and leans back in his seat, looking none too pleased.

“What do you want to know?” Myungsoo asks, curling into Hoya. Woohyun narrows his eyes at that, probably reading some deep meaning into it, but honestly Dongwoo thinks that Myungsoo just likes human contact and Hoya is the only one he knows will give it to him without question.

“What do you think we need to know?” Dongwoo answers, when a silence drags on with no one asking, and everyone wondering.

“My name is Kim Myungsoo and I am a grifting addict?” Myungsoo offers in some bizarre attempt at a joke that would probably be too lame even for Hoya (maybe. He does seem to have a shockingly bad sense of humour). 

 “ _You’re_  Kim Myungsoo?” Woohyun asks in shock, “The Kim Myungsoo,”

“Guilty,” Myungsoo smiles innocently at him, “Do I deserve a The in front of my name?” Myungsoo looks up at Hoya as if asking for confirmation, “That’s exciting.”

“What’s so important about Kim Myungsoo?” Sungyeol asks. Honestly Dongwoo is surprised Sungyeol doesn’t know, since Sungyeol prides himself on knowing everything about everyone’s past careers. 

“Kim Myungsoo was this like up and coming thief,” Woohyun explains, looking troubled, “Making waves for all kinds of reasons. Very good but very reckless, stole from a lot of people that he probably shouldn’t have. Gambled with his life.”

“That’s all very dramatic.” Myungsoo tells them looking wide eyed and innocent. Too innocent.

“You were a bit reckless,” Hoya tells him reaching down to ruffle his hair. Myungsoo glares up at him but Hoya just shrugs in response.

“As far as I was aware Kim Myungsoo died,” Woohyun says with a frown, “Stole from the wrong people and ended up dead.”

 “Oh, well sort of?” Myungsoo says with a little shrug, “I did steal from the wrong people, and probably would have ended up dead, but you know, I didn’t, surprise.” 

“How’d you manage that?” Sungyeol asks curiously, leaning forward with that spark in his eye that isn’t particularly common but means he’s not going to let something go, “The not dying part.”

“Hoya,” Myungsoo says simply, “took pity on me.”

“And turned you into a grifter,” Sungjong says dryly. This doesn’t sound like any sort of new information to Sungjong but, it’s not surprising. He’s probably known longer than they’ve been together.

“He wasn’t a very good thief,” Hoya says, slinging an arm around Myungsoo’s shoulder and pulling him impossibly closer into his side, “He got caught after all.”

“Yeah, robbing the Triads,” Woohyun scoffs, “Who’s dumb enough to try that and get away alive.”

Dongwoo is really not surprised when Sungjong raises his hand. Neither is Woohyun evidently by the way he sighs and shakes his head. 

“Okay, let me get this straight.” Sunggyu says, doing that thing where he rubs the bridge of his nose as if he’s got a headache (he doesn’t get headaches so Dongwoo has no clue where the habit came from), “You are Kim Myungsoo, an infamous though not particularly good thief..”

“Oh he was good,” Woohyun interrupts, “Is good? I don’t know. Reckless and dumb but good.”

“Okay so he’s a thief of some sort that everyone’s apparently heard of until you stole from the wrong person, Hoya helped you fake your death and then you decided to reinvent yourself with a code name from a Japanese manga you read,” Sunggyu summarises, “Is that it? Am I missing something?”

Judging from the way Hoya and Myungsoo exchange looks (and just knowing Hoya and Myungsoo in general) there’s a lot, lot more to that story. “Not missing anything,” Hoya says eventually. 

“Okay,” Sunggyu nods, “That clears that up, we can use that.” He nods. It doesn’t surprise Dongwoo that Sunggyu has already sorted through ways to use Myungsoo’s new found skills to his advantage - he’s probably still annoyed that he’d been kept in the dark but that’s neither here nor there. 

“Yeah, and we can stop having a teammate with a stupid code name,” Sungyeol sighs, “Honestly calling you L was getting really annoying,” Sungyeol addresses Myungsoo, “Of all the fake names to choose.” 

“N was already taken,” Myungsoo deadpans, still curled into Hoya’s side. Myungsoo is always touching Hoya, but he’s really full body about it when the topic of the past comes up, “And I kind of came up with it on the fly,” he admits.

“And unfortunately it stuck,” Hoya says. Dongwoo imagines that Hoya has been calling Myungsoo his real name in private, but L around others for years, “despite the fact it’s rather unfitting.” Dongwoo whole heartedly agrees there - L had always seemed clunky and unfitting in relation to Myungsoo.

“I don’t suppose anyone else has any secrets they want to announce to the team?” Sunggyu asks, “People not being who they say they are, hidden skills we could have been using all along.”

“Hoya,” Myungsoo says and then pauses dramatically. Dongwoo wonders if he’s going to tell them what Hoya’s real name is as revenge for Hoya spilling the beans on his. “Cooks a really nice Boeuf Bourguignon.” He says before giggling. Well at least he’s amusing himself. 

“I can confirm that.” Sungyeol nods solemnly. Dongwoo didn’t know Sungyeol was close enough to the two of them to be on dinner party terms, but you learn something new every day.

“Well if we ever need to pull a grift on a restaurant or culinary institute then we know who to call,” Sunggyu says dryly. Dongwoo’s not sure how good of a grifter Hoya is - he’s never seen him do it - but he can’t be worse than Dongwoo himself.  

“I’d also like to reveal that Sungjong has a past history as-” Sungyeol starts to say, before he’s cut off by Sungjong hurling a scrunched-up takeaway menu at him. They all turn to look at Sungjong surprised that his face is a thunderous frown instead of the cool indifference he tries to project so often, “a circus acrobat.” Sungyeol finishes, looking incredibly confused by why he’s being assaulted with Toni’s pizzeria special offers.

“I didn’t want you to reveal my shameful circus past.” Sungjong shrugs, back to cool indifference. Interesting, Dongwoo thinks.

“I do have a question though,” Dongwoo says, since he really needs to know “Did you really chose to go by L because of Death Note?”

Everyone laughs, but that’s okay. At least the tension is gone.

 

 

♙♙♙

POST WHITE CONFESSION JOB: JANUARY 2012

 

All things considered the White Confession job doesn’t actually take them that long to take care of, mostly because it’s on a smaller (though no less important Myungsoo keeps saying) scale than their usual job.

The crew decides to hang around in Japan for a couple of weeks afterwards, to remain inconspicuous Sunggyu says, though Dongwoo says they deserve a vacation. Sungyeol has been heard saying he likes observing Hoya and Myungsoo in their ‘natural environment’ and honestly, after everything with the Paradise job, Woohyun feels like this down time has come at a good time.

He can hardly believe it’s only been a year since The Before The Dawn job, he feels like so much has happened since then. So much has  _changed_.  

Right now though Momo had dragged all of them (except Sunggyu who is notably and probably purposefully absent) to some local park. It’s a weekday in the middle of January so there’s barely anyone around, but all wrapped up against the cold it’s not the worst situation they’ve found themselves in recently. A scrappy game of football had ensured, with Hoya and Momo working together to trip Myungsoo over as much as possible -even without their assistance Woohyun is sure he’d have found himself on the ground more often than not.

Eventually, though it starts to snow again and Momo herds them to a huge dance studio of some sort. It’s locked, of course, but Sungjong just rolls his eyes as he picks the lock and they’re in. 

Which is how they’ve found themselves in their current situation. Hoya and Momo are doing some sort of complicated looking dance whilst Myungsoo watches and cheers them on. The rest of them are sitting at the back of the studio, observing for the most part though Sungyeol has managed to pull a laptop out of god knows where.

“I am witnessing Hoya teaching a sixteen year old how to dance with my own two eyes, and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it.” Woohyun says, cocking his head to the side as they watch, “I’m not sure I believe it.”

“Hoya-hyung wanted to be a dancer when he was a teenager.” Sungjong tells him. His voice is very matter-of-fact but he looks a little bit  _sad_  about it of all things. “He was really good,” he adds softly.

 It’s the most information on Hoya (or Sungjong’s) past that Woohyun has gotten and he doesn’t know whether to push for more or accept it for what it is. 

Woohyun doesn’t have to make a decision though because a few seconds later Dongwoo is asking with his usual bluster, “Why didn’t he?”  

“His dad didn’t want him to,” Sungjong says, some sort of darkness coming over his usually pretty controlled face (not passive - Sungjong’s face is never passive - but it’s usually very carefully constructed with an air of bored indifference).

Not even Dongwoo pushes it further than that, instead he nods, “He  _is_  really good.”

Sungjong sort of beams with pride at that which is interesting. Those two and their relationship is always interesting, not nearly as blatant as Hoya and Myungsoo or even Dongwoo and Sunggyu, but Woohyun sometimes gets the feeling that it’s the strongest bond in their little band of misfits.

As they watch, Momo goes over to Myungsoo and pulls him to his feet, trying to coax him into joining them dancing. The two of them are laughing the entire time, and even Woohyun has to smile watching them. Hoya is also smiling, the fond sort of smile that Woohyun thought was reserved for only Myungsoo and Sungjong, though now he thinks he has to add Momo to that list, but something about it feels disconnected. 

“Maybe he’s a robot,” Woohyun finds himself saying. Sungjong and Dongwoo look at him sceptically and even Sungyeol finally decides to look up from his laptop to shoot Woohyun a scornful look.

“How the fuck did you arrive at that conclusion?” Sungyeol scoffs. Woohyun supposes it was a bit of a non sequitur.

“I don’t know, it just makes sense,” Woohyun shrugs, “Like how can someone  _real_  be so…” he trails off not actually wanting to be offensive.

“Good at everything?” Sungyeol offers dryly, before answering the question he’d posed himself “Hard work and perseverance maybe.” 

Woohyun really wishes that there was something nearby that he could throw at Sungyeol (or better yet his laptop) because he really hates the insinuation that he doesn’t work hard himself. He’s been busting his fucking ass since he was fifteen thank you very much, fuck anyone who tries to tell him otherwise just because his grifting skills are pretty fucking great.

“I mean,” Dongwoo says as though considering the thought, “Does he sleep?”

“Yes,” Sungjong says with a roll of his eyes, “And he’s a fucking nightmare to wake up believe me.”

“Maybe it’s because his robot battery takes a while to power up,” Dongwoo suggests. Woohyun is pretty sure that he’s taking the piss out of him at this point but he doesn’t care. 

“Plus, has anyone actually … seen Hoya show emotions?” Woohyun can’t help asking. He knows Hoya feels things, it’s pretty fucking obviously, but he’s never seen him lose control even slightly “Like real strong emotion.” 

“Of course he feels emotions,” Sungjong scoffs, sounding personally offended.  

Woohyun should tread carefully here probably. “Myungsoo said he yelled at Sunggyu once, but is yelling really emotion.” Or he could let his tongue run away with him and not.

“Just because he hasn’t shown you any strong emotions,” Sungjong starts to say

“-Besides compassion,” Sungyeol interrupts helpfully, “And empathy.”

“Neither of those things are emotions,” Woohyun points out rationally, “And besides, robots would be good at advice would they not.” 

“I feel like robots would be bad at empathy seeing how they have no emotions,” Dongwoo says. Woohyun has no idea what he’s playing at or angling for at this point.

“Or they’re good at pretending to have emotions because their programming is excellent,” Woohyun says. He doesn’t know where this conversation is going, he doesn’t know why he brought it up. His life is a mess. 

Before it can go any further, thankfully - and Woohyun’s not sure which is a more likely outcome, offending Sungjong irredeemably or Dongwoo getting over excited on robot mythos, they’re interrupted by the subject of their conversation.

“Whatcha talking about?” Myungsoo asks as he practically flings himself onto Sungyeol, who barely has time to move his laptop out the way. Luckily Sungjong takes it for him. 

“How Woohyun thinks Hoya is probably a robot.” Dongwoo answers cheerfully. Way to throw Woohyun under the bus, especially considering Dongwoo had been as into speculating as Woohyun himself. 

“If Hoya was a robot,” Myungsoo says thoughtfully, resting his head on Sungyeol’s shoulders as Momo and Hoya come over, “Wouldn’t he be, you know, taller.”

“I don’t know, maybe that’s to throw people off. People think someone so short could never be a robot so he flies under the radar.” Dongwoo provides helpfully.  

“Why the fuck would a robot need to be tall?” Sungyeol asks sceptically. Sungyeol’s one to talk he’s the tallest of the lot.

 “Because being tall is a strategic advantage.” Myungsoo says sagely.

“Really?” Hoya asks wryly, standing over them with an arm wrapped around Momo’s shoulder. It’s been two months and Woohyun still doesn’t really understand the girl or her relationship with Hoya and Myungsoo to a lesser degree, “because I can still kick your ass from here to Australia despite being a good two inches shorter than you.”

“Yeah,” Myungsoo smiles cheekily at him, “But you also can’t reach the top shelf in the kitchen, so who’s really winning.”

Hoya growls slightly before launching himself at Myungsoo who manages to scramble out of Sungyeol’s lap before Hoya is chasing him around the dance studio like the children they really are. 

“Are we sure they’re older than me?” Momo asks, watching the two of them, “And are we sure they’re really Myungsoo and Hoya?” 

“What do you mean?” Woohyun can’t help asking her curiously, “and please sit.”

Momo primly takes a seat as she thinks, “Well, before. Back when they were just my weird but pretty nice neighbours they kept to themselves a lot. Pretended to be salarymen even though they didn’t really work the hours of salarymen. Didn’t laugh a lot, you know. Boring, respectable neighbour stuff.”

Woohyun only actually understood about half the words she said, but luckily Sungjong has decided to take pity of Woohyun and translate for him. 

One day his Japanese skills will be up to scratch. Eventually.

“I think I like this version better though,” Momo says with a smile as they watch Myungsoo shriek and try to get away from Hoya tickling him, “Yeah. I definitely like the real them better.”

Woohyun’s not sure what the real them is, but Momo has a point. One he could probably do to remember.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote Hyuna in because my beta really loves the whole Troublemaker Now concept and we found a way for it to fit in with Hoya’s backstory. And then a couple of days after I wrote it, I googled to see if they’d ever really interacted before and found the 2013 MAMAs performances. So, happy coincidence. Again. For like the fourth time so far this fic.


	10. Chapter Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yesterday evening I decided one of the scenes in here just, was a little bit too heavy handed so I completely wrote a new scene and stuck it in here, very last minute (like didn't finish it till after 1am) and then my beta still edited it for me after a work shift at like 2am her time so. Bless her, but if it feels a bit rushed that's on me.
> 
> Anyway, this chapter has quite a few shorter scenes, but none of the longer ones. It's also a bit of a mishmash there's a scene I wrote in April in here and a scene I wrote 12 hours ago in here. Plus It and the next chapter are the same theme, and we’re coming up to me starting to reveal the point of this fic I feel so I’m excited. I hope it’s all okay!

_I do care._

_How does that feel?_

_Weird, but I think I'm getting used to it._

 

 

♘♘♘

 

“I hate working,” Sungyeol announces, coming into the living room where everyone but Dongwoo and Sunggyu were currently gathered (Sunggyu and Dongwoo were off scouting some sort of location for the next stage of the job - Sungjong hadn’t cared enough to ask when they’d left).

“Yes, we’ve all noticed,” Sungjong can’t help but drawl as Sungyeol flops down onto Myungsoo and on the couch. It’s the first time Sungjong has noticed Sungyeol being the one initiating contact with Myungsoo as opposed to the other way round, which is interesting.

Sungyeol flips him off but doesn’t say anything.

“What’s wrong Yeol?” Myungsoo asks indulgently, patting Sungyeol’s head. He’s probably just playing along because Sungyeol is giving him physical contact. Or he wants to mock his best friend. Either seem suitable options.

“I am going to stab the payroll lady in the face next time she asks me if I’m eating enough,” Sungyeol says, managing to cross his arms over his chest and looking extremely petulant, “Or threatens to feed me again, I’m pretty sure I could have broken my computer with the muffin she tried to feed me yesterday.”

“Someone thinks you’re not eating enough?” Myungsoo asks teasingly, “That’s a first.”

“Says you,” Hoya says with a little grin from his spot sitting next to Woohyun on the other side of the room. The two of them had been planning … something before Sungyeol came in, though now Woohyun has his eyes glued to his phone as if it’s the most interesting thing on the planet.

“Is that all that’s bothering you?” Myungsoo asks, ignoring Hoya (which Sungjong himself has found is the best solution for dealing with his teasing humour) and continuing to pet Sungyeol like a particularly unruly cat.

“Well,” Sungyeol says before launching into the rant he’s clearly been sitting on since he got in, “Mark in Accounting was complaining to Sarah in Customer Service about how I don’t do any work. He was saying that don’t pull my own weight. Can you believe how ridiculous that is?” Sungyeol says sounding completely and legitimately outraged, “Me not pulling my own weight.”

“That’s because you don’t do any work.” Woohyun provides without looking up from his phone. Sungjong was unsure he was even paying attention.

“I do.” Sungyeol insists as if he’s taking personal offence to the accusation against an alter ego of his. Clearly this is why Sunggyu doesn’t let him grift too often - he takes everything so personally.

“You don’t do any work at the NoirTech office,” Myungsoo agrees with Woohyun, but with a qualifier to soften the blow to Sungyeol’s ego. Personally Sungjong wouldn’t have bothered, Sungyeol could do with having his ego knocked down a peg or two.

“How can you all say this to me?” Sungyeol says in a way that a novel would probably describe as a wail. It’s all very melodramatic.

“You spend your entire work day putting viruses and backdoors into their computer system.” Sungjong says. He’s never worked a day in his life, it was never something he’d even been brought up to do, but he’s pretty sure most companies wouldn’t take to kindly to their employees infecting their systems.

“And texting Myungsoo,” Is Hoya’s contribution, effectively to remind Sungyeol that he’s not even working their job all his time at the office, “That’s sure as fuck not work.” 

“All I hear is criticism,” Sungyeol sits up so he can heighten the dramatic import of the moment, Sungjong assumes, “I’d like to see you last one day in an office environment.” He’s pointing at Hoya, who is probably the worst case, but Sungjong’s pretty sure he’s talking to all of them. 

“You’re not actually in an office environment,” Hoya says with a roll of his eyes.

“Physically I’m in an office.” Sungyeol is just being contrary at this point. It’s pretty funny though, Sungyeol is reminded of a young girl he once knew, “so therefore I am in an office environment.”

“Yeah but it doesn’t matter if you get fired or something,” Woohyun pipes up putting his phone away, and fully engaging with them, “Since you’re not actually relying on the pay cheque and you know, you’re actually trying to bring the company down from the inside.” 

“Not the company, just the CEO.” Sungjong points out helpfully, because pulling down an entire company would be bad for the hundreds of families relying on the wages, as Dongwoo so often points out to them.

“Pedantics” Woohyun waves away.

“Isn’t that like a doctor for babies?” Myungsoo asks, frowning in confusion.

Everyone in the room turns to look at him, equally as confused, except Hoya who frowns, “What?” Sungyeol asks. 

“You’re thinking of paediatrics Soo,” Hoya says with a fond grin, though there's something more there.

“Oh, okay.” Myungsoo nods as if that makes perfect sense to him. Sometimes Sungjong would really like to know what goes on in Myungsoo’s mind, other times he thinks it’d be an awfully disorganised and frankly quite terrifying place.

“The point is,” Woohyun says, bringing the point back to teasing Sungyeol because that’s been Woohyun’s new favourite hobby over the last couple of months, for reasons no one has quite been able to understand, “That Sungyeol isn’t even getting a proper work experience and he can’t handle it.”

“I’d like to see you try.” Sungyeol says, ignoring the fact Woohyun has gone undercover in an office for numerous jobs before.

“I have,” Woohyun says dryly.

“He did a much better job than you,” Hoya says. “Didn’t have any co-workers doubting his commitment and potentially blowing his cover.”

 Woohyun grins at Sungyeol in a way that’s clearly meant to be gloating.

“Excuse me, the work I was assigned got done, it’s not my problem they think everyone in that place is an idiot who takes eight hours to complete an hour worth of work, tops.” Sungyeol says defiantly. Sungjong is pretty sure he’s just playing along now and has got most of his annoyance out of his system but with Sungyeol you can never be sure. For all that Sungyeol relentlessly mocks Sunggyu for his arrogance, his own ego is a weirdly fragile mix of easily shaken and unflappable; it’s hard to tell what’s going to set him off on a mad quest to prove himself.

“Pretty sure the reason you got it done was because you were getting Soo to do it for you,” Hoya is being relentless today. Sungjong’s not sure he knows why if he’s just in one of his moods or he’s trying to push Sungyeol’s buttons for a specific reason.

“That was only three times.” Myungsoo protests on Sungyeol’s behalf, “You just happened to find me doing it every time I did.”

“Uhh-huh,” Hoya says, making the scepticism very clear in his voice, but he does sink into the couch (and Woohyun’s side) and lets it go.

“I’m just saying I don’t know how anyone works in an office. Annoying co-workers who gossip about you when they do no work themselves, really fucking mind numbing work, demanding bosses,” Sungyeol lists off on his fingers, “These are the reasons why I never got a normal 9 to 5 job” 

“I thought that was because no one would hire you so you resorted to a life of crime,” Sungjong says dryly, just having to get one last parting shot in.

Sungyeol aims an obscene gesture in his direction this time.

“I think we can all agree that none of us are suited to office work,” Myungsoo says, ever the peace maker, at least when he’s not the one that’s initiated the mischief or squabbling on purpose.

“It’d be a shame to waste all our skills in an office,” Sungjong agrees because he thinks Sungyeol deserves a break. After all he is the one that’s been doing an office shift every day for two weeks when he’s usually not out of bed before 11am.

“Plus can you imagine Hoya in an office,” Woohyun says with a conspiratorial grin, “He’d be punching his boss in the face by the end of the week.” He knows the others like to tease Hoya about how violent he is, but Sungjong wonders if they know how much he’s always holding his temper and violence back. They probably don’t, if they did they wouldn’t joke about it (except maybe Sungyeol with his chronic lack of tact).

“Or the gossiping co-workers. Mark is very lucky it’s me in there and not Hoya,” Sungyeol says all faux sagely.

“Really?” Hoya asks with a cocked eyebrow, playing along because that’s what he always does “Is a punch in the face really worse than whatever cyber terror I’m sure you inflicted on him.” 

“What can I say,” Sungyeol says with a shrug, “I had a lot of time to kill when I wasn’t pulling my weight.”

Not even Sungjong can find a good comeback to that, so he allows Sungyeol to have the last word this time, watching with a bemused grin as Myungsoo takes advantage of Sungyeol’s position in his lap to give him an impromptu hair make-over, complete with ridiculous bangs and everything. He quickly snaps a picture on his phone, already planning a few surprises for Sungyeol’s next office shift.

 

 

♔♚♔

APRIL 2011

  

Sunggyu has long resigned himself to the fact that Hoya and Myungsoo are essentially forces onto themselves. They come and go as they please, feel no hesitation to question any decision that anyone (especially Sunggyu himself) makes, and generally have the most confusing relationship on the planet.

They’re usually not insolent for the sake of being insolent, and always do show up for jobs so Sunggyu figures that just letting them be is the best thing to do for the team. Trying to force people into doing something they fundamentally don’t want to do will never lead to a harmonious team environment.

At least that’s what his old boss used to tell him: it’s hard sometimes, leading this team of people who don’t particularly want to be lead, but it’s a learning experience and they’re doing good work so Sunggyu will bear the brunt of their bark, and have confidence there’s no bite lying below.

So Hoya and Myungsoo are very rarely around between big jobs, which probably cuts down on how efficient the team is in general, but Sunggyu just makes note of it as a fact of life, factors it in as something for consideration and moves on.

For the first year, then Myungsoo does what he does so well, and changes everything without seemingly meaning to.

“Sunggyu,” Myungsoo knocks on the door to Sunggyu’s study one evening and calls out, but doesn’t open it, which is taking politeness to a whole other level. 

“You can come in Myungsoo,” Sunggyu calls out, trying to keep the amusement out of his voice. Against one of the grifters it’s probably the definition of a futile action but he does it anyway.

Myungsoo pushes the door open then, looking more hesitant than Sunggyu has seen him before. Then again you never know with Woohyun and Myungsoo what is put on and what is sincere. Sunggyu has found its best to approach them the same way he would any other person on the team, let them have their secrets and take their words and emotions at face value unless they’re very obviously fake. 

After all he’s sure Sungjong could pull the wool over his eyes if he set his mind to it, and he’s not even one of their grifters, so that might explain why Sunggyu’s approach always relies on not forgetting who he’s dealing with. 

“What’s up?” Sunggyu asks Myungsoo instead as he closes the door behind himself. 

“I was talking to Hoya, and I was thinking,” Myungsoo says before stopping in frustration, “I was wondering if…”

Sunggyu waits him out, or attempts to at least. When it becomes clear that Myungsoo has no further plans of continuing he prompts him gently, “What were you wondering Myungsoo?” 

“I wanted to, Hoya said he didn’t think you would mind,” Myungsoo says again before stopping with a sigh. Sunggyu is starting to think he’s going to have to prompt him again, perhaps more firmly than last time if he wants Myungsoo to ever get to the point, before Myungsoo is blurting out, “I want to stay.”

“Stay where?” Sunggyu asks. The only thing that makes sense really is Myungsoo asking to stay with the team, but that seems out of character.

“Here,” Myungsoo says before looking down at his hands, “Or well not here here because I imagine it’s time for you to move cities soon and I don’t know you’d want me here, but here like, with you guys.”

“Why are you asking me?” Sunggyu asks bemused.

Myungsoo looks at him like he has two heads, “Because you’re the leader?” 

“I mean, I guess I’m the leader of this team when we’re doing jobs, but on your personal time Myungsoo I really don’t mind what you get up to, where you choose to live.” Sunggyu says. It’d be more convenient for them to be all together after all, so he doesn’t know why Myungsoo would think Sunggyu wouldn’t approve.

“You guess you’re the leader?” Myungsoo asks incredulously, before seeming to remember that he’s trying to appear meek or mild or all those things Sunggyu knows by now he isn’t, at least not all the time.

Sunggyu doesn’t deign to answer that, though he’s not sure he has a comeback even if he wanted one, and instead asks, “Why do you want to stay?” he asks, before deciding that probably comes across a bit too, hostile.

Myungsoo doesn’t mind, or doesn’t care (is probably used to it - he lives with Hoya after all), “I just want to,” Myungsoo says looking frustrated, “I, I’ve never had, a place before.” Myungsoo says.

“Okay,” Sunggyu cuts Myungsoo off before he hurts himself trying to get the words out, “You can stay.” Sunggyu feels weird saying that because he really doesn’t have any power over where Myungsoo chooses to live. Plus even if he said no for whatever reason, Myungsoo probably would have just moved in with Sungyeol anyway.

“Thank you,” Myungsoo beams at him.

The thing that’s struck him about this conversation is the fact Myungsoo is asking him and Hoya is nowhere in sight. So now he has all the information he asks, “What about Hoya?” 

Watching Myungsoo’s face go from a blinding grin to an all-encompassing expression of sadness is something to behold - and it’s something Sunggyu never really wants to see again. 

“I want to stay because I’d like to stay and Hoya doesn’t want to because he doesn’t know how.” Myungsoo admits openly, which is interesting, “So, Hoya will keep doing what he’s always done?” 

He doesn’t know much about Myungsoo or what is considered in or out of character for him, but in the eight months he’s known the kid he was sure that he would never willingly separate himself from Hoya. Seems he knew even less about Myungsoo than he first thought. 

“Okay,” Sunggyu nods not sure where to go from here, “You’re right, I was thinking of moving us on in a few weeks, so I don’t know where you’ve been living?” He doesn’t particularly know where the other members of his team stay (that’s Sungyeol’s thing) but even less so what Hoya and Myungsoo get up to.

 Myungsoo shrugs, “Around.” 

“You can stay with us, if you want.” Sunggyu says, because he knows if Dongwoo were here he would be insisting on it himself.

Myungsoo looks at Sunggyu like he’s seeing him for the first time. “Thank you,” he says striding towards Sunggyu and throwing his arms around him. As soon as he’s done it, he stiffens seemingly realising what he’s done and making as if to pull back. Sunggyu doesn’t let him, instead returning the hug much to Myungsoo’s obvious surprise. 

It’s not that Sunggyu doesn’t like affection, it’s just there’s a time and a place and the middle of the job (the only time Myungsoo is around) is usually not the time or the place. 

Eventually though, Sunggyu gently dislodges Myungsoo because there is a limit, “You know.” Myungsoo tells him with an appraising look, “You’re not as mean as you pretend to be.”

“I don’t pretend to be mean!” Sunggyu says incredulously. Pretending to be in control, or calm, or not panicking when plans go wrong for sure. Pretending to be mean though, is a bit of a stretch - that’s just his natural asshole coming out.

“Okay,” Myungsoo says bouncing out of the room much more cheerfully than he entered it, “Whatever you say. I’m going to tell Sungyeol I’m staying.” He says waving as he leaves, “Bye Sunggyu, thanks, you won’t regret it.”

Sunggyu watches him go in bemusement, wondering exactly what just happened.

No day with this team will ever be boring, at the very least.

 

 

 

♟♟♟

 

THE LAST ROMEO JOB : JUNE 2014

 

Myungsoo quite frankly has no idea how Howon and Dongwoo spend so much of their life in the gym. Sure, Myungsoo trains with them sometimes because he gets his ass kicked and kidnapped enough as is, let alone if he let his self-defence levels slip, but those two. Myungsoo would guess they spend half their down time in the fucking gym.

Which is really, really weird and Hoya never spent so much time exercising before but, maybe it’s something he likes to do now he has someone to do it with. Or maybe it’s his attempt to bond with Dongwoo. It’s really not that important so Myungsoo doesn’t think about it too much.

Sometimes though, he likes to sit and watch them spar - it’s actually really interesting because they’re on a similar level but have completely different fighting styles. Dongwoo fights in a sort of scrappy way, all agility and fluidity. Howon on the other hand is more aggressive and precise - you can really tell that most of his training came through the military, whilst if Myungsoo had to guess he’d say Dongwoo probably picked up his basic skills from fighting as a teenager - though there’s definitely that undercurrent of training and precision there if you look hard enough.

Myungsoo is soon disrupted from his thoughts though by the arrival of Woohyun, “Myungsoo,” he says, startling Myungsoo from his thoughts. The way he’s smirking at him though says he’d probably called for him more than once.

 “Hi,” Myungsoo smiles as Woohyun sits next to him on the floor, back against the wall,

“What are you staring at so hard?” Woohyun teases him gently, “Admiring the goods? Having a bit of a perve?”

“I…no,” Myungsoo stutters, blushing even though that hadn’t been what he was doing at all, in fact he’d been so zoned out he’d barely been seeing what was happening.

“It’s okay Soo,” Woohyun laughs at him, banging their shoulders together to show that he means nothing serious, “I don’t blame you.”

“Huh?” Myungsoo turns to Woohyun in confusion. 

“Look at them, honestly’ Woohyun says waving a vague hand in their general direction, “It’s kind of obscene, the way they’re fighting all sweaty,”

 “Yeah, I guess.” Myungsoo says even though he hadn’t really thought that at all. Now that Woohyun has pointed it out however…

“Dongwoo’s arms are a thing of beauty.” Woohyun says, resting his head back against the wall with a thump. As if he doesn’t spend a good chunk of time in the gym himself, though his is more a vanity thing than any sort of real training the way Howon and Dongwoo do.

“Yeah,” Myungsoo agrees. 

“Though I’m sure you have eyes more for Hoya,” Woohyun continues to tease him.

“Well, I mean,” Myungsoo shrugs shamelessly, because well there is absolutely nothing for him to be ashamed of, “Maybe. Have you seen the way Hoya fights?”

“Once or twice,” Woohyun says, “The way he bangs people’s heads together is a really quite inspiring you’re right.”

Myungsoo elbows Woohyun in the side really not appreciating the totally uncalled for teasing that has been directed his way. 

“Have you ever noticed how different their fighting styles are?” Myungsoo asks, hoping to distract Woohyun and also prove to him that he’d been thinking deeper than simple ogling.

“I guess so,” Woohyun says thoughtfully, “I mean I’ve noticed, but not considerably considering I don’t spend my free time watching them spar,” 

“It’s interesting. I thought you were meant to be the body language expert.” Myungsoo teases, dropping his head on Woohyun’s shoulder. Woohyun sighs but doesn’t push him away.

“Most of the time when I see them fighting I have more important things to worry about. Like running away, or not getting punched in the face by bad guys or something.” Woohyun says dryly. Myungsoo has to laugh at that because it’s pretty true.

“Well, I’m just saying, I think you can learn a lot from the way a person fights.” Myungsoo says. It’s something he’s always thought, though being with Howon so long has reaffirmed the idea for him. 

“I’ll keep that in mind then,” Woohyun says, sounding sincere. Myungsoo’s not entirely sure he’s not being placated, though it probably doesn’t really matter. 

He doesn’t get a chance to find out though because the next minute Woohyun has noticed Sungyeol coming into the room and called out, “Wow, Sungyeol, I didn’t know you knew what a gym was.”

Dongwoo and Howon look up from their sparring at that, before deciding Sungyeol is clearly less interesting than rolling around in each other’s sweat on the mats and returning to it.

“I didn’t,” Sungyeol retorts coming over to where Woohyun and Myungsoo are sitting, “This is a gym? Seems unpleasant.”

Myungsoo snorts, whilst he catches Woohyun rolling his eyes in the mirror, “Why are you here?” Woohyun asks.

“Well, I thought I’d arranged a time to meet up with Myungsoo but clearly I was wrong,” Sungyeol crosses his arms over his chest and raises an eyebrow.

“Oops,” Myungsoo says, looking to his wrist before remembering he didn’t have his watch on today so grabbing Woohyun’s wrist so he could look at his, “Sorry, I forgot.” he says trying not to think too hard about it.

“I can see that,” Sungyeol says, folding himself up as he sits down next to Myungsoo.

“Yeah, he was really busy observing the free show.” Woohyun teases. Myungsoo is considering elbowing him again , it’s really tempting, but it’d require moving his body and he’s not sure he could do that right now.

“How long have they been at it?” Sungyeol asks as Dongwoo and Howon finally stop for a water break.

“I don’t know, I think I’ve been here about an hour and they were already going when I got here,” Myungsoo says, although his sense of time is pretty awful so it could have been longer.

Woohyun lets out a frankly unnecessarily loud whistle, drawing the attention of the two hitters, “An hour and Hoya still has his shirt on? That has to be some kind of record.”

Hoya sends an obscene gesture Woohyun’s way which just makes Myungsoo laugh, “Honestly, Dongwoo manages to keep his shirts on 90% of the time, why can’t you?”

“My shirts get torn when I fight it’s not like I just take them off willy nilly,” Howon says. Myungsoo would like to disagree, though he’d rather actually observe this argument from afar since it’s pretty harmless.

“Buy stronger shirts,” Sungyeol suggests.

“Please, if you had a body like that you would always be shirtless,” Myungsoo teases Sungyeol, because he can’t help himself. And Howon had told him about how Sungyeol was asking for work out tips the other week which made Myungsoo laugh considering how vocal Sungyeol is about hating the gym.

“Plus why are we comparing me to Dongwoo, I’m not the one always walking round with my dick out,” Howon scoffs, coming over towards them. Now that Myungsoo can agree with (for the most part).

“True,” Sungyeol says with a wrinkle of his nose.

“We were all born naked,” Dongwoo says cheerfully, following Howon over.

“Yeah, but we were also born with umbilical cords and soft skulls,” Sungyeol retorts, “Doesn’t mean we should stay that way our entire life.”

Myungsoo snorts because that’s a weird, but bizarrely logical retort from Sungyeol.

“Hey Sungyeollie, come spar with me.” Dongwoo says overly cheerfully.

“I am okay,” Sungyeol says, trying to back away from Dongwoo (which he is super unsuccessful at seeing as he’s sitting with his back to the wall). Dongwoo just laughs, launching himself at Sungyeol, who shrieks and falls into Myungsoo, who is very lucky he’s been leaning against Woohyun this whole time otherwise he’s sure he would have hit his head on the floor.

Howon’s standing above them all laughing, and Myungsoo is suddenly struck with a feeling of incredible fondness for this team that has become his family. All the moment is missing is Sunggyu and Sungjong, but otherwise, it’s the most content Myungsoo has been in a while. 

Which is weird considering Dongwoo is getting sweat all over him. Then again Myungsoo’s always been a weird person, so maybe it makes sense this is where he finally feels he fits.

 

 

♙♙♙

JUNE 2013

 

In the days since the ‘SM reveal’ as Sungyeol has taken to calling it, Woohyun has honestly felt like he’s walking on eggshells, balancing a tightrope, any other cliché metaphor he can think of. Living in paranoia, trying to appear normal.

Except nothing about this is normal. Not the way Hoya and Myungsoo haven’t spoken in over a week, not the way Sungyeol has been so quiet and withdrawn, nor the way Sunggyu has been asking others for opinions.

It’s a weird time for all of them, but Woohyun finds himself strangely grateful for it because it means no one is paying any attention to him.

Except then seemingly overnight Hoya and Myungsoo have made up, Sungyeol seems better rested and less like he’s running on fumes (and Sungjong seems smug, to say the very least so Woohyun will chalk it up to his intervention) and Sunggyu is back to pretending to be in control.

And then the Takada job happens.

Which means it’s time for a ‘group meeting’ to ‘determine what to do about SM’.

“Are you alright?” Myungsoo asks Woohyun in wide eyed concern as they all pile into the study room, “You look kind of twitchy.” 

“It’s nothing.” Woohyun says more out of reflex than anything, not that he’d have told Myungsoo anything even if he’d had time to consider.

“Are you sure?” Myungsoo pushes. Which is odd, because Myungsoo is usually the opposite of a pushy type. Then again this whole last month has felt more like a surreal dream than any sort of reality to Woohyun, “Nothing you want to talk about?”

“I promise, everything’s fine.” Woohyun says, lying through his teeth.

“Okay,” Myungsoo says looking … almost disappointed, before he’s bounding away from Woohyun so he can claim ‘his’ spot wedged between Sungyeol and Hoya on the room’s single couch.

Woohyun sighs, wondering if he’ll ever understand Myungsoo, before he sits himself in the desk chair at the desk where Sungyeol’s laptop usually sits.

“Okay,” Sunggyu says once Sungjong perches himself on the arm of the couch next to Hoya, “So, we need to decide what to do about SM.”

“Not join them,” Dongwoo says straight away.

“Well, obviously we weren’t going to join them,” Sunggyu rolls his eyes before casting them around the room, “Unless anyone in the room wants to join them.” 

There’s a chorus of no’s and adamant denials from everyone. Woohyun just shakes his head, because what’s the point in adding his voice to the noise.

Apparently Sunggyu thinks otherwise because once the noise has died down Sunggyu asks him, “Woohyun?”

“What? Do I want to join SM?” Woohyun asks sceptically, “Of course not.” 

“Well, we’ve got to do something.”Hoya says lacing his fingers together and resting them on top of his head (and almost elbowing Myungsoo in the face in the process), “They’re not just going to go away.”

“And here I was with my plan being to just ignore them till they gave up,” Sunggyu says sarcastically, “whatever did I do before your sage advice.”

“End up with half your team caught,” Hoya says with a smug smile, “Need us to save your ass.”

He has Sunggyu there, and Sunggyu knows it so he just frowns. Or glares. Or potentially pouts, Woohyun can’t decide which.

“Have you actually rejected them yet?” Woohyun asks hesitantly before the two of them get distracted (for the two so called ‘most focused’ members of the team, Hoya and Sunggyu distract each other an awful lot). 

“No, not before talking to you guys.” Sunggyu says, consulting his team on a plan for potentially the first time ever. It makes sense though, because this is bigger than any job, this is about their team, “Why? Do you have something to say Woohyun?”

“No,” Woohyun says sinking slightly into his chair, “Just wondering.”

“Has anyone had any dealings with SM in the past then?” Sunggyu asks, which makes sense, the reason he’s including them in decision making for once, “Anything they want to share with the class.” 

Once again everyone voices their denial, except for Hoya who just says something about how Sunggyu already knows what he knows. Woohyun doesn’t say anything, yet again, because he doesn’t know what to say.

“Woohyun,” Sunggyu calls him out yet again. What is with today, “Do you know anything.”

Woohyun doesn’t want to lie, he really doesn’t, but he also doesn’t want to say anything revealing. He honestly can’t even tell if it’s to protect himself or to prevent waves from being made, when things are already out of control. 

Eventually he settles on, “Nothing of importance.”

“Anything could be important,” Sungyeol says picking at his nail-bed with his thumb, “Any little bit of information. Do you know anything.” 

“Aren’t you more likely to know something than me?” Woohyun says, since deflection honestly seems the easiest option at this point. 

“I’ve already told Sunggyu absolutely everything I know,” Sungyeol crosses his arms over his chest, “ _Everything_ I know.” 

No one has said anything directly but Woohyun feels like he’s being interrogated. Maybe he’s projecting his own nerves and guilt, but he doesn’t think so. Especially considering the way Hoya is looking at him, and his little exchange with Myungsoo earlier. . 

“If anyone has something to ask me,” Woohyun says defensively, “Why don’t you just fucking ask me.” That causes everyone to look at him, even Dongwoo and Sungjong who seem to have no idea of the cause of the underlying tension in the room.

“Fine. Do you know anything about SM or any of the people that work for them.” Sunggyu asks, point blank leaving Woohyun no wriggle room, “Or is there something you’re keeping from us.”

“Sungyeol was literally part of SM and no thinks he’s keeping anything from them,” Woohyun says bitterly, “Or questioning his loyalty.”

“ _Almost_ part of SM, I didn’t actually join,” Sungyeol says with an air of superiority that makes Woohyun want to punch him in the face.

“And they spent the better part of 18 months hunting him down,” Sungjong points out in a way he probably thinks is rational, “He very obviously has no loyalty to them.” How transparent, and Sungjong is usually very good at not being obvious.

“I have no loyalty to them.” Woohyun insists, “Why are we even discussing this.” 

“You might not have loyalty to SM,” Hoya speaks up for the first time, “But you have loyalty to Kim Kibum,” Woohyun’s blood runs cold, “And he sure as hell has loyalty to SM.” 

Sungjong and Dongwoo turn to him with identical looks of shock on his face, but none of the others seem surprised by the revelation, just disappointed.

“Since I seem to be the only one out of the loop,” Sungjong says coolly, “Anyone want to tell me who Kim Kibum is, besides clearly a SM lackey of some sort.” 

“He’s a member of Lee Jinki’s team,” Hoya says, not removing his eyes from Woohyun, “He’s a grifter as far as I’m aware, but no one really know who in Jinki’s team does what.”

Dongwoo’s eyebrows climb into his hair line, “Woohyun’s friends with a member of SM’s top team?”

“Grew up with him,” Hoya says, as if he knows this is fact (it is fact but Woohyun has no fucking idea how he could possible know), “Kibum is apparently the person that understands Woohyun best in this world,” Hoya continues with a challenging eyebrow.

“He’s Woohyun’s Hoya.” Myungsoo says quietly. It’s not even a full sentence but everyone understands, straight away, and Woohyun can feel the judgement deepen.

“I haven’t spoken to Kibum in years,” He says. Which isn’t technically a lie.

“Bullshit.” Sungyeol bursts out with a real sense of anger in his voice, “That’s fucking bullshit.”

Woohyun gapes at him not sure what to say. Sungjong though, voices what Sungyeol has clearly been implying, “He warned you, didn’t he?” Sungjong asks, before clarifying so Woohyun can’t play dumb, “During the Takada job when you said you just happened to notice an SM goon, that was a lie.”

“Yeah,” Woohyun admits.

“Yeah, Kibum warned you,” Sungyeol crosses his arms over his chest, “So sure you haven’t spoken to him in years, and if you’re lying about that maybe you really do have loyalty to SM.”

“I swear on my fucking life I don’t,” Woohyun says adamantly, needing them to believe him. There is a reason he never joined up with SM even though Kibum did, and a reason his best friend had warned him about SM’s interference.

“I’m not sure that’s worth much,” Sungyeol mutters under his breath. The words crush Woohyun, more than he’s willing to admit, weighing down heavily on him.

“How did you know?” Woohyun asks cautiously.

 “I hacked your phone,” Sungyeol answers flippantly, like that’s not a particularly gross invasion of Woohyun’s privacy.

“You hacked my phone?” Woohyun snaps, “And I’m the one that’s the big bad here.”

“Well, you were so shifty on the Takada job I had to find out what you were hiding,” Sungyeol says back with equal amounts of venom, “And it’s a good thing I did, because would you have told us otherwise?” 

Woohyun wouldn’t have because it doesn’t affect anything, all it would have done (and is doing) is making his team suspicious of him, when they have more important things to be focusing on. 

“So you told everybody?”

“I told Sunggyu, I don’t know how Myungya know.” Sungyeol shrugs like it’s no big deal.

“Woohyun told me,” Hoya says quietly. Woohyun gapes at Hoya because he’s pretty sure he would remember telling Hoya something he’s been trying so hard to keep a secret for so long.

“When?” Sungyeol and Woohyun demand in pretty much unison. Sungyeol seems to find the fact they’ve been in unison personally offensive by the way he’s frowning but Woohyun really cannot bring himself to care.

“The Paradise Job.” Hoya says voice still so quiet Woohyun has to strain to hear, “You were pretty fucking out of it, and SM wasn’t even a blip on the horizon till we took The Chaser job, so I didn’t mention it.”

Except to Myungsoo, obviously.

Sunggyu frowns, like he hadn’t known about this, but since this is clearly designated rip into Woohyun time he doesn’t say anything. Hoya’s probably going to get a tongue lashing later which gives Woohyun a tiny deal of satisfaction (not enough to deal with this bullshit though). 

There’s silence as everyone clearly waits for Woohyun to say something. Only Woohyun has no idea what to say, and eventually he just goes for, “Well what do you want me to say? Or do?” 

“Tell us everything you know about SM, and Kibum’s team.” Sunggyu says, which is exactly what Woohyun didn’t want to hear.

So now he’s got to make a choice between the first team he’s ever been able to work in and his oldest friend.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

  

♝♝♝

 

 

 

“Do you know,” Myungsoo tells Sungyeol one day completely out of the blue, “The first time I ever met Hoya he tried to shoot me,”

“Hmm,” Sungyeol mutters in absentminded acknowledgement as he attempts to find the information on a target that Sunggyu wants in ninety minutes. Then the words sink in, “Wait,” he says looking up at where Myungsoo has positioned himself, sitting on Sungyeol’s desk next to his computer, “What?”

“The first time I ever met Hoya,” Myungsoo says again, like Sungyeol not hearing him was the problem here, “He tried to shoot me. Actually he tried to stab me then he tried to shoot me,”

“Huh,” Sungyeol says, he didn’t think anything about those two could surprise him anymore but this does, “I guess you can tell who Hoya’s going to take a shine to based on who he points a gun at.” He jokes. 

Myungsoo doesn’t get that “I don’t think he ever pointed a gun at Jongie? I think he’d rather point a gun at himself. Also he’s not so fond of all the marks and guards and general bad guys he points a gun at.”

“I guess not Soo,” Sungyeol says indulgently, because Myungsoo just brings that reaction out in basically everyone.Then, because he actually is kind of curious, “Why did he shoot you?”

“Tried to shoot me. Although actually thinking about it now if he’d wanted to shoot me I’d have been shot,” Myungsoo says thoughtfully, as if the thought had never crossed his mind before. That can’t be right though because Myungsoo isn’t stupid. Most of the time. Myungsoo doesn’t make to answer Sungyeol’s question - he must be lost in his head again -“He shot at me because I tried to rob him,”

“That was dumb of you,” Sungyeol comments mildly. Though Myungsoo appears to go off on unrelated and distracted tangents often, Sungyeol knows he never says anything without a specific purpose (even if the meaning is only apparent to him - and of course Hoya).

“Yeah, it was,” Myungsoo says, kicking his feet out in front of him on the chair, “And he actually shot at me.”

Sungyeol fails to see how that is a thing to be proud of, but the way that Myungsoo is puffing out his chest right now seems to suggest something about that is significant to him. “Congratulations?” Sungyeol tries.

Myungsoo lapses into silence then, and Sungyeol takes that as an opportunity to continue on his work.

It’s another twenty minutes before Myungsoo speaks again, and when he does he’s so quiet that Sungyeol almost misses it, “Yeollie,” he says, sounding so unsure that Sungyeol actually looks up at him, “Do you think that Howon… He only shot at me.”

He stops there but it’s something seriously bothering him for him to slip up and use Hoya’s real name, “Yeah Soo he only shot at you,” Sungyeol says, putting his laptop aside with a sigh and holding a hand out to Myungsoo. That’s all the invitation Myungsoo needs before he curling into Sungyeol’s side like an attention starved puppy.

“That means something right?”

Sungyeol sighs. It quite obviously doesn’t, but if Myungsoo needs it to be a symbol for something that is true then Sungyeol’s not going to stop him, “Yeah Soo. It does.”

 

 

 

♖♖♖

 

Dongwoo loves the family he’s found in the crew that Sunggyu has put together, not as much as he loves his own family, but so much that it makes the ache of missing his family lesser, makes it bearable.

He loves them so much, but so often he feels like he doesn’t belong, doesn’t actively contribute to the good work they’re doing. Not in a self-deprecating way - Dongwoo knows his fighting skills are second to none, on par with Hoya’s even if markedly different - just in the way that he’s not sure he could make the decisions that everyone else does.

He’s not used to life on the run, of keeping out of contact with his family, and multiple identities, of breaking the law and destroying lives no matter how corrupt. Every time they fell a bad guy, he can’t help but think have they ruined the lives of that persons child, of hundreds of employees, of people tied to assholes who did nothing wrong.

Dongwoo’s not sure he belongs in this life, even if he’s never felt he belonged anywhere as much as he does with this group of people.

He doesn’t say anything, mostly because who would he talk to besides Sunggyu and Sunggyu has enough on his plate at the minute. Hoya (and Myungsoo by extension) have the most twisted sense of morals Dongwoo has ever seen - he knows they have them he’s just not sure he understands them – and Sungyeol could probably be put in the same category. 

Plus it’s not exactly a problem, and even if he doesn’t exactly fit into this lifestyle he has nowhere else to go, his bridges are burned and returning to his family would be a risk of everyone involved.

It’s fine, he’s fine, that’s a fact. At least, until Sungjong decides to corner him one day.

“Dongwoo,” Sungjong drops out of the ceiling into the gym as Dongwoo is cooling down. Hoya had been here earlier, but Sunggyu had called him off for some reason or another leaving Dongwoo alone, “Are you okay?” Sungjong asks, getting straight to the point, no beating round the bush for him. 

Dongwoo looks up from his stretch in confusion, “I mean, I think I overworked a little bit so my arms will probably ache in the morning, but for the most part I’m fine.”

Sungjong rolls his eyes, “Not physically,” he says as if that’s the most obvious thing in the world, “Emotionally. Mentally.”

“Yeah,” Dongwoo says, because he is. There are those nagging doubts, but they don’t get in the way, don’t make him sad or anything so he would consider himself okay. There’s never any point in dwelling on things you can’t change. 

Sungjong watches him with that steady look of his as he sits down opposite Dongwoo on the matt and starts stretching himself.

Silence drags on for a few minutes before Sungjong asks him, “Are you sure?”

Dongwoo has no idea what kind of magic Sungjong is using, or if he’s really just wanted to talk about this more than he ever knew, but he finds himself asking, “Do I.. belong here?”

Sungjong continues to look at his steadily, whether it’s his excellent poker face or he was expecting Dongwoo’s answer he’s not sure, “Of course you belong here.”

“I think I belong with your guys, with this team,” Dongwoo admits readily because that’s never been the problem, he loves these guys, “But I don’t think I belong in this life.”

“Hyung,” Sungjong says, and he must be serious because he very rarely calls any of them that aren’t Hoya hyung, and even then he’s stopped using it for Hoya nearly as much as he used to, “You are so important to this team. We need you here.”

Dongwoo doesn’t vocally disagree with him, because he’s not sure he wants to see the disappointed look on Sungjong’s face that doing so would surely bring. It must show on his face though because Sungjong sighs, “Hyung, you’re the moral compass for us all,” Sungjong explains.

“Isn’t that a bad thing?” Dongwoo can’t help asking, “Everyone has their own set of morals.” 

“They do, and Sunggyu clearly takes that into account to some degree. But everyone’s morals are things they’re not willing to do, your morals are about consequences and repercussions,” Sungjong says with so much conviction that Dongwoo wants to believe him, “Without you, despite our best intentions I’m sure we’d leave a trail of destruction in our wake, not as bad as the people we target but certainly something that would make us the bad guys to some poor families.”

Dongwoo had honestly never considered that possibility. “Really?” he can’t help asking.

“Really,” Sungjong says with a nod, “We need you here.”

The words they don't, they're not enough to make Dongwoo reevaluate everything, but they're nice to hear. Make him want to believe, to reevaluate his understanding of the team. At the moment maybe that's enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The times I post these are so erratic tbh, apologies for that.


	11. Chapter Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is… technically actually part two of the last chapter, and also very clearly the longest chapter to date (it's over 10,00 words) I had too many ideas for the theme of this one. Anyway I didn’t realise until now but most of this is set around the same time frame, trying to get the last few bits of set up out before the interlude (hopefully it's not too confusing). 
> 
> In other news this update takes the total words of Leverage AU over 100,000 words in just over 6 months, I'm quite proud of that it's the most I've ever written for any fandom (combined probably).
> 
> It's also got one of the first scene I wrote for this fic which so happens to be one of my favourite scenes in here so yeah :) i'll stop talking now xD
> 
> Oh one last thing, shout out to my beta who was up till 5am her time editing this for me, I don't deserve you but I will attempt to pay you back in more angsty backstory gifsets! :3 (the first one is up!) <3

_It's OK, I would not have fit in with a family.  
_ _Now you have gone out and made your own._

 

♙♙♙

POST LAST ROMEO JOB: JUNE 2014

 

Sometimes, Woohyun can barely believe his biggest concern going into The Last Romeo job was seducing a girl a few years younger than him. After everything that’s happened: meeting said girl and realising how she could hold her own, the change in group dynamics, the jet halfway across the world and more significantly than anything else Hoya’s injury, it hardly even rates a mention anymore. 

Instead, once the job is finished he spends the afternoon trying to keep Myungsoo out of Kei’s way as she patches Hoya up as best she can (which is pretty fucking well). It’s been exhausting, Woohyun is amazed he’d managed to do it with only Sungjong’s help, but finally Myungsoo had fallen asleep almost an hour ago. 

Not wanting to disturb him, Woohyun sits where he is and runs over the job in his head, working out where he could have done better, how he could have prevented Hoya’s injury. 

It’s not that he blames himself, it’s just that he wants to know where he went wrong so in the future he doesn’t go wrong again. 

“Hey,” Woohyun is knocked out of his thoughts by Dongwoo’s voice. He looks around the living room in their London safe house, realising that at some point that the sun has gone down.

“Hey,” Woohyun says, voice sounding hoarse even though it hasn’t actually been that long since he last spoke. There’s a weight on his leg and when he looks down he remembers Myungsoo is lying on his thigh. 

“Rough day,” Dongwoo says, as he takes a seat on the coffee table opposite the couch Woohyun is sitting on.

“I’ve had worse.” Woohyun shrugs self-deprecatingly. This wouldn’t even rate in his top ten bad days with this team. Hoya might think differently, but if Woohyun knows anything about Hoya he’s probably calling this a mild inconvenience and nothing more. 

“How is he?” Dongwoo asks, gesturing to where Myungsoo is curled up, seemingly asleep. (Myungsoo is after all the best of them at feigning sleep and only Hoya seems to be able to tell when he’s faking it or not) 

“As good as is to be expected I suppose,” Woohyun says sympathetically, running his fingers through Myungsoo’s hair gently.

“And you?” Dongwoo asks, turning his eyes from Myungsoo to Woohyun. 

“I’m fine,” Woohyun says, honestly for once, “We’re really lucky that we had her though,” now that is the fucking truth, the girl had turned into a bigger ally than any of them ever could have predicted. No matter what Sunggyu is going to try and claim after the fact, “But I am fine.”

“You told me you’re fine enough there that I almost believe you.” Dongwoo says with a grin. It’s tired, they’re all exhausted from this job, but it’s genuine as everything about Dongwoo is. 

“I think I should really be asking how Hoya is,” Woohyun says, looking down to make sure Myungsoo is still asleep (or pretending to be). Woohyun is pretty sure he’s actually asleep though, that little crease between his brows isn’t always present when he’s actually asleep, but Woohyun’s never seen him do it when it’s pretending.

“Judging by how much insisting he was fine he was doing I’d say he’s probably as close to fine as he could be,” Dongwoo says with a dry laugh, “Kei shooed the rest of us from the room. Except for her new best friend.” 

“That could be interesting,” Woohyun says.

“Yeah,” Dongwoo agrees, “Maybe they’ll team up, start their own ladies only defender of the innocent team,” Dongwoo suggests with a small smile. At least someone can smile at the moment, Woohyun appreciates that.

“If Kei’s running with another crew who’s going to be our on call medic?” Woohyun asks. Hoya does the best he can and his training is good from what Woohyun can tell, but there’s a huge difference in the skills of a medical student and someone who picked up their first aid skills, as far as Woohyun can tell, in the military.

“Yeah,” Dongwoo says before sighing, “Kei said she doesn’t want Hoya walking around on his own for a couple of months, I can’t see that happening.” 

“Oh, wow,” Woohyun says, frowning, “That’s worse than I thought.” 

“I think it’s worse than any of us thought, even Hoya. For his ankle at least,” Dongwoo says with a nod of his head, “But everything else is the best possible outcome, especially the head injury so I think we should just count our blessings.”

“That’s a good way to look at it,” Woohyun says softly. A damn sight better than thinking of the fact they’ll be a functional hitter down for longer than they’d like. 

“I’m not going to be the one to tell Myungsoo though,” Dongwoo says, he’s joking but also probably not really. Woohyun thinks the best idea would be to let Hoya tell Myungsoo.

As if he’d heard them talking about him, Myungsoo starts to wake up. Honestly he looks kind of like a lost kitten whenever he wakes up from a real sleep (and that answers that question) it’s one of the most adorable things Woohyun has ever seen.

“Hey sweetheart,” Woohyun can’t help whispering as Myungsoo blinks up at him, “How you feeling?” 

Myungsoo continues to blink, rubbing his cheek into Woohyun’s leg. It takes all his self-restraint not to laugh. He also hopes his face isn’t as unbearably fond as Dongwoo’s is right now. 

“What time is it?” Myungsoo finally manages to ask.

“I’m not sure,” Woohyun admits seeing as he’d lost track of time completely before Dongwoo had come along. He looks to Dongwoo to see if he knows. 

“About seven, maybe a bit later,” Dongwoo answers in a hushed voice. They’re in their own home, there’s no need for lowered voices but it feels necessary.  

Myungsoo turns to look at Dongwoo, still blinking but looking slightly more awake. 

Woohyun and Dongwoo both see the moment he wakes up properly because he bolts upright, almost hitting his head on Woohyun’s chin in the process. “Howon,” he says, trying to get off the couch and managing to get himself tangled up in literally nothing.

He almost falls off the couch but luckily Dongwoo and Woohyun somehow manage to stop him through haphazardous team work, “Hoya is fine,” Woohyun reassures, tucking Myungsoo under his arm. For one of the tallest members of this team Myungsoo has a knack for being able to make himself seem tiny. “Kei is dealing with him and won’t let anyone in.” 

“She’d let me in,” Myungsoo says with a little pout, though the way he’s settling into Woohyun’s side means he’s probably not going to fight with them on that front. 

“I’m sure she would.” Dongwoo agrees placatingly. 

A thought occurs to Woohyun and he looks at Myungsoo with narrowed eyes, “When was the last time you ate?”

“Umm,” Myungsoo says, screwing his face up in concentration, “Breakfast. I think.” That was 12 hours ago. That’s also probably the longest Kim Myungsoo has gone, whilst conscious, without eating in his life (minus any times he’s been kidnapped of course). 

“I suppose I’d better go cook something for you then,” Woohyun says, making as if to stand up. Except he can’t because Myungsoo has latched onto his arms and thrown his legs over his lap, effectively pinning him to the couch all the while continuing to cling to Woohyun in what’s probably the tightest hug he’s ever received. “Myungsoo?” Woohyun asks hesitantly.

“Dongwoo can do it.” Myungsoo essentially demands.

Woohyun is about to tell him off for ordering his friends around when Dongwoo waves him off, “It’s fine, I don’t mind, it’s something to do to feel useful,” He said  

“Soo?” Woohyun asks, reaching out towards Myungsoo. Myungsoo stiffens, as if he expects Woohyun to push him away. When Woohyun just runs his fingers through his hair though he relaxes into Woohyun even further, “Is everything okay? Are you okay?” 

“Everything is fine.” Myungsoo says, clinging in a way that says everything’s not fine, “Is this not okay for you though?” He says, stiffening again, “Do you want me to go?” 

“Of course I don’t want you to go,” Woohyun says. Myungsoo’s had a long and rather difficult day, of course he doesn’t mind. Myungsoo relaxes again.

“Then yes, I really am fine.” Myungsoo says.

Woohyun doesn’t believe him but he lets it go. The last thing he wants to do is upset Myungsoo again (something he has a habit of doing without even knowing what he’s done).  

Instead they sit together in silence listen to the sounds of Dongwoo pottering around in the kitchen, letting it soothe them with their normalcy. 

 

 

♔♚♔

MAY 2013

 

 

Sunggyu is really, really not looking forward to turning SM down. In fact you could say he’s dreading it, he’s almost certain SM isn’t going to take it well - they’re not really asking him to join so much as giving him an ultimatum, a thinly veiled threat.

Still as the Takada job showed, they’re not going to be held off much longer, especially considering everything Woohyun had so reluctantly spilled about SM (Sunggyu is still keeping an eye on him, he knows first-hand how tangled loyalties can become) so he figurea taking an answer to them proactively would be much better than the alternative.

Like SM bursting down the door to their home.

Before he does any planning though he needs more information, and since the risk of Woohyun holding something back to protect his friend (or for more nefarious purposes) is too high, he goes to the next best source of SM knowledge.  

He knows Sungyeol really, really doesn’t like to talk about his experiences with SM but desperate times call for desperate measures. Although the approach Sunggyu is hoping pans out is desperate measures to prevent desperate times. 

Sungyeol looks resigned when Sunggyu finds him in the study as usual, discussing something in quiet voices with Sungjong. If it was Myungsoo, Sunggyu would be worried, but for now he lets it be. 

“Can I speak to you?” He asks.

Sungyeol continues to look resigned but it’s Sungjong that pulls a face, “Isn’t he doing enough for you already?” he asks. 

“I’m not asking him to do anything,” Sunggyu says, even though he doesn’t have to justify himself to Sungjong. Sungyeol maybe, since it’s Sungyeol that he’s asking things of, but it’s none of Sungjong’s concerns, “I’m asking to talk to him.” 

“About things he doesn’t want to talk about,” Sungjong manages to position himself in front of Sungyeol without even getting off the couch. It’s a truly impressive talent, Sunggyu will have to ask him how he does it when Sungjong’s ire isn’t directed in his direction. 

“Sungjong, it’s fine.” Sungyeol says, laying a hand on his shoulder.

Sungjong looks between the two of them with a frown before huffing and getting up, “Fine. But don’t blame me when it goes badly.” He says before flouncing from the room. Using the door, which he slams behind him.

Sunggyu looks after him in confusion, “Did he just use a door for the first time in his life so he could slam it?” He asks skeptically.

“Apparently so,” Sungyeol says looking amused. 

“Huh, I forget he’s the youngest, most of the time.” Sunggyu comments since he does: Sungjong holds himself with a great deal of maturity, more than Myungsoo and at times Sungyeol and Woohyun, so Sunggyu often forgets that he’s barely in his twenties. 

“Sungjong’s an enigma.” Sungyeol shrugs in a way that Sunggyu can’t quite pin down. That’s sort of irrelevant now.

“So,” Sunggyu says, taking Sungjong’s vacated spot though with slightly more space between him and Sungyeol than Sungjong left. 

“Let me guess, you want to interrogate me about SM?” Sungyeol asks humourlessly.  

“I don’t want to interrogate you,” Sunggyu says with as much conviction as he can force into his voice, “I really don’t, but I do want to know as much as you can tell me about SM. Only as much as you can though.”

“Didn’t you get enough from Woohyun?” Sungyeol asks, crossing his arms over his chest and broadcasting ‘I’m uncomfortable with this topic’ signals so loudly Sunggyu can read them. He sounds resigned like he knows he’s going to end up talking despite himself. 

“You’re the only person I know of who’s rejected SM,” Sunggyu says honestly, “If anyone knows their MO in that situation it’s you.”

“You mean I’m the only one you know of who rejected them and lived to tell the tale, free and out of prison,” Sungyeol says bitterly. It’s odd, Sungyeol not hiding his emotions behind a mask of sarcasm - for all that he bitches and moans Sungyeol is almost as good at hiding his emotions and real feelings as Hoya except in the sort of way you don’t realise he’s doing it.  

Sungyeol talks a lot but says very little.  

“Yes,” Sunggyu says calmly, because that’s exactly what he means.

“And now I’m going to be dumb enough to do it again, is this what they call tempting fate?” Sungyeol asks rhetorically.  

“Do you want to accept?” Sunggyu asks with a cocked eyebrow, since he knows Sungyeol is the most adamantly against the idea of all.  

“No, of course not,” Sungyeol spits with real venom, “I just hope you realise the sword of Damocles you’re bringing down onto us,” He paused and then corrects himself, “we’re bringing down onto ourselves.”  

It’s an unnecessary correction but Sunggyu really appreciates the sentiment. 

“That’s why I’m asking you, to be prepared and form a plan from there.”

“You can’t prepare against SM,” There’s that bitter laugh. Sunggyu never wants to hear it come from Sungyeol ever again, it’s so incredibly out of place and wrong, “Not really.”

“Then what do I need to know?” Sunggyu asks as gently as he can manage.

He knows asking Sungyeol to relive his time on the run is going to be painful, even if he doesn't’ know the details. He doesn’t want to put Sungyeol through it because contrary to popular (if joking - he hopes) belief amongst his team he doesn’t enjoy seeing any of them suffer. The thing is though if he doesn’t get this information out of Sungyeol, doesn’t put him through the momentary pain of reliving a dark part of his past, then his whole team is going to end up suffering a lot worse for a lot longer. 

It’s a trade-off he hates to make but would do it several times over in a heartbeat if he had to.

“I’m really, really lucky I had no family left alive by the time SM came around,” Sungyeol starts off staring into space. It’s an odd place to start but one that makes Sunggyu’s heart sink, “Because they started by looking so far into my history I’m pretty sure they visited my parents’ graves. They talked to anyone that had ever associated with me, and because I wasn’t the easiest to get along with when I was young as far as I know everyone flipped on me.”

“Everyone?” Sunggyu can’t help but ask softly because that sounds horrible. Sunggyu’s never had many friends but he’s always had someone. Had Dongwoo.

“I was a really obnoxious shit, thought I was the best hacker in the game, thought I was unstoppable.” Sungyeol says looking at his hands in a way that says he’s not really seeing.

“You are the best hacker in the game.” Sunggyu says because he is, and it’s true, and he really hopes Sungyeol knows that.

“Well, maybe I am now,” Sungyeol says with a glimpse of his usual bravado, “Because SM made me. They stalked me for almost 2 years. As soon as I turned them down I got out of Korea, thought maybe Japan would be far enough. It wasn’t. Neither was America, or Canada. France or England. For a year they chased me out of every new town within a few week. Do you know how hard it is, on your own new town every week, afraid to talk to anyone who shows interest in you because you’ve learned the hard way the chance they’re an SM goon sent to beat you up or kill you or drag you back, I was never sure their exact orders, is too high.” 

Sunggyu doesn’t know what to say to that, never had any idea exactly how far SM had pushed Sungyeol and how hard Sungyeol had to work. Luckily (or unluckily) Sungyeol has gotten on a roll and just keeps talking.  

“Eventually after about a year I ended up in the Scottish borders. A tiny town called Hawick, not so small an outsider was that out of place but not so big anyone would think to look for me there. I don’t think SM ever found me there, but it was hell, every morning wondering if this was the morning they’d bust down your door. Wanting to move on because being in the same place for so long is a huge risk but staying because you’re tired of running.”

“Sungyeol,” Sunggyu says needing to say something but not knowing what. God he wishes Dongwoo was here, “I’m sorry.” He settles on, sorry for what happened and for dredging up painful memories.  

“Don’t be. It’s my fault. It was so stupid because I approached them. I was _so_ stupid.” Sungyeol says. He sounds so despondent that Sunggyu is very sure this is something he beats himself up over every day, “I told them I thought I had a skill set they could use, convinced them, and then rejected them so it was a double slap in the face. They essentially stalked me for almost two years. Two years until I felt safe enough to leave Scotland. You know, meeting up with you guys was the first time I was brave enough to leave the UK.” 

Sunggyu is floored by that, by the fact Sungyeol had trusted him, or wanted to believe in his mission enough that he’d left his safety blanket from SM for him. 

“So The Chaser job was your first time back in Seoul?” Sunggyu can’t help asking. He’s amazed because Sungyeol hadn’t seemed against the job at all, though maybe he had been drowned out by Hoya’s loud and adamant protests against Seoul (Sunggyu sees his point now - he was so convinced The Chaser job was the most important they pulled - and maybe it was - but some days now he doubts it was worth it. Especially now Sungyeol has told him what he has).

“Yeah, I figured it was time to let old ghosts lie, I didn’t realise we’d be quite as flashy as we were,” Sungyeol says with a flash of his teeth that’s probably meant to be a smile, “If you weren’t going to listen to Hoya you weren’t going to listen to me.”

“I’m listening to you now,” Sunggyu says. That’s something he’s definitely learned from this whole saga, a mistake he won’t be making again. 

“Reject them, it’s the only thing we can do,” Sungyeol says with the most confidence he’s had all evening “but you better damn well be working towards a plan that will get them off our back once and for all afterwards.” Sungyeol says. 

Sunggyu hadn’t had a plan in mind, but now? Now he’s going to need one.

And he’s going to need his whole team’s help.

 

♝♝♝

THE DESTINY JOB : JULY 2013

 

Nam Woohyun has gone well and truly insane. Woohyun has gone insane, Sungyeol thinks as he stomps his way from the briefing he’d just had with Woohyun and Sunggyu, and Sunggyu is clearly well on his way as well if he’s putting Woohyun in charge of this job even after just hearing what he has planned. 

Sungyeol is used to Sunggyu demanding things that seem so impossible to him. He relishes in it, has come to think that Sunggyu has a better grasp on what Sungyeol’s capable of than he does himself. He gives Sunggyu shit for it, because Sunggyu’s expectations are insane and he enjoys the look that Sunggyu gets when he complains, but he respects the heck out of him.

 He knows when Sunggyu sets him a task with that challenging look that it might take him longer than expected, it might pull on all the knowledge he’s gained over the years, but he’ll be able to do it. That Sunggyu has trust in his abilities because he understands his abilities. 

Woohyun on the other hand, is asking for the impossible. Not just the impossible, the batshit insane. For a plan that’s probably not even going to work; it’s too messy, too many pieces moving and assumptions made. 

Sungyeol doesn’t know what Sunggyu is planning, putting Woohyun in charge, but he seriously doubts Woohyun, and for the first time he’s seriously doubting Sunggyu as well.

Of course Sungyeol leaves the meeting and does the only thing he possibly can in this situation, he goes looking for Myungsoo. 

Hoya and Dongwoo are away on a job, which means there’s only a few places that Myungsoo could be and Sungyeol is just that good that he finds him in the living room on his first try. 

Sungjong is also present, the two of them sitting on perpendicular couches talking about something (how dumb Hoya is probably). The most surprising part of the scene is that Sungjong appears to be using the couch how it was intended to be used. Sungyeol really has seen everything now today. 

“What’s wrong?” Myungsoo asks as soon as he sees him. Sungyeol must be broadcasting more than he thought. 

“Woohyun,” Sungyeol says bitterly, taking a seat next to Sungjong on his couch (which causes Myungsoo to pout spectacularly as if Sungyeol has greatly offended him by not sitting next to him), “Is fucking insane.”

“Well yeah,” Sungjong says as if that was a given fact (it kind of is), “You’re only just learning this?”

“No, but he’s never been put in charge of a job before so I didn’t know exactly how fucking insane he is when he’s allowed to go off on his own plans,” Sungyeol says rubbing at the bridge of his nose, a habit he’s started to pick up from spending so much time with Sunggyu. 

“Wait, Sunggyu was serious about that?” Myungsoo asks, “I thought he was just pranking Hoya.” 

“Sadly he is deadly serious,” Sungyeol says, “Unless he’s pulling an elaborate prank on all of us.” Sunggyu’s humour is weird, but he’s usually very, very serious about the job and such.

“Huh,” Myungsoo says, getting up off his couch and coming to sit next to Sungyeol. Can’t go three seconds without human contact that boy, but he still doesn’t go to Sungjong for it, “Is it really that bad?”

“Yes.” Sungyeol says emphatically as Myungsoo manages to curl himself into Sungyeol’s lap, like an overgrown kitten, “I’m pretty sure he came up with the idea whilst watching Inception or something.”

“I thought Sunggyu did the initial planning of the job,” Sungjong questions, turning his head to look at Sungyeol. Sungyeol hadn’t realised how close they were before this, but he can’t exactly move back with Myungsoo all over him. 

“Sort of?” Sungyeol says, mostly confused by what’s going on here himself.

“So you were just photoshopping Jesus Woohyun for fun?” Myungsoo interjects cheerfully, “And told us it was for the job so you wouldn’t be embarrassed, but then Woohyun actually incorporated it into the job so really this is all your fault.” 

“Your imagination is a scary place,” Sungyeol tells Myungsoo, flicking him gently on the forehead, “Please stop talking.” 

“But is it scarier than Woohyun’s imagination?” Myungsoo asks, seemingly genuinely curious, “Because maybe I should have been put in charge of the job.”

“No,” Sungyeol and Sungjong say in pretty much unison. Myungsoo pouts at them both but doesn’t seem too put out thankfully. 

“I am surprised he didn’t put Hoya in charge though,” Sungyeol says. It’s something he’s been wondering about, and if there’s anyone who can shed light on anything Hoya related it would be one of these two.

“He doesn’t want to be in charge,” Myungsoo says quietly and thoughtfully, like this is something they’ve discussed together but that Myungsoo doesn’t quite understand. 

“Besides, if you were paying attention,” Sungjong interjects mostly playfully, “I think Hoya hyung is in on whatever Sunggyu is up to that means he’s relinquished his death grip on control.”

“Oh,” Sungyeol says, wracking his brains for everything that’s gone on since Sunggyu told him about this job (has it really only been four days), “That makes sense.” Why Hoya is a lesser part of this plan than he usually is, he thought that might have just been Woohyun being petty or something. 

“Observant.” Myungsoo teases him.

“It’s not my job to be observant of people,” Sungyeol says, which is kind of a lie and kind of the truth. Reading body language is not his thing, but digging up people’s dirty secrets his idea of fun, “Unlike you.” 

“I do alright,” Myungsoo shrugs, with way more confidence than he feels - Sungyeol knows this for a fact. Honestly, Myungsoo is the perfect example of fake it until people believe you know what you’re doing.

“If you do so well then,” Sungyeol says challengingly because he really wants to know, “What the heck is so important that Sunggyu is leaving the diminutive power-hungry twerp in charge of one of the most important jobs we’ve done yet.” 

“He said it was that important?” Sungjong asks with that little cock of his head that makes him look like a curious puppy. Except, way more dangerous than any dog ever could.

“He said it was important,” Sungyeol says, which is enough in of itself. Sunggyu usually doesn’t like calling jobs ‘important’ because all their jobs are important or something. In fact the last job he called important was The Chaser job, and they all know how that went down, “and he gave me a couple of days instead of hours to get started.”

“Oh well, then it must be super important,” Sungjong says with more than a touch of sarcasm. 

Sungyeol really wants to elbow him in the side or something, but he also doesn’t want his laptop or phone to go missing. Especially not now. 

“Maybe he’s doing something with SM,” Myungsoo says as if he’s been mulling the question over instead of listening to Sungyeol and Sungjong bicker.

They both look at him, “You think Sunggyu is working with SM?” Sungyeol can’t help asking, even though he’s sure that’s not what Myungsoo means. 

“No, I mean,” Myungsoo says, sitting up. That’s how you can tell Myungsoo is serious about something, when he’s not touching someone so he can gather his thoughts, “Last two jobs we pulled SM tried to sabotage right?” Myungsoo asks.

“Three technically,” Sungjong corrects, “Since the Takada job was a thing.”

“Right, but that was just a spanner in the works after Sunggyu properly rejected them they really tried to sabotage them. Maybe, like,” Myungsoo says looking frustrated as if he’s not sure exactly how to articulate the solution in his head. It’s something Sungyeol has noticed often happens, Myungsoo’s brain working faster than he knows how to put into words, “Maybe this job really is so important Sunggyu has to like, distract them.”

“You think Sunggyu’s trying to distract SM?” Sungyeol asks. He realises his tone is quite skeptical but even as he says the words he’s running the conclusion that Myungsoo has drawn over in his head, trying to get it to fit. “He’s going out in the field himself alone, to face SM.”

“Of course that’s not what he meant idiot,” Sungjong says, elbowing him in the side as Myungsoo just pouts kind of pathetically, “He’s probably going to redirect their attention.” 

Privately Sungyeol doesn’t know what Sunggyu is going to be able to do without his and Sungjong’s help, but he doesn’t say that because he doesn’t want to tempt fate and end up with any more ridiculous tasks added to his ever growing list (thanks Woohyun). 

Myungsoo though can clearly tell what Sungyeol’s thinking because he giggles (not laughs - giggles) and says, “I think they’ll use their connections not some complicated computer coding that Sunggyu doesn't even know exists - if Hoya is in on it I’m not so sure.”  

“He might not be in on it so much as Sunggyu is planning on using him and hasn’t told him yet,” Sungjong offers. That’s not out of character for Sunggyu, but as Sungyeol’s come to learn keeping things from Myungsoo, despite apparently having promised not to, isn’t out of character for Hoya either.

“So what you’re telling me,” Sungyeol says, to get the topic away from the can of worms that is Myungya, “Is that I have fucking SM to blame for Woohyun’s crazy, hare brained scheme. He wants me to fake superpowers.” he says with extra drama and air quotes for emphasis because honestly Woohyun has no idea what he does. Clearly.

“Didn’t you do that already?” Myungsoo asks curiously, cuddling back into his side now the ‘serious’ talk is over, “Make Woohyun Jesus.”

“He doesn’t want me to photoshop superpowers, he wants me to physically make super powers,” Sungyeol complains, wanting to cross his arms over his chest but unable to because of Myungsoo. Instead he sinks into the couch, “Like I’m not a scientist Woohyun or a magician, I’m a hacker.”

“He wants you to make magic powers?” Sungjong asks cautiously, “Like what.”

“For who?” Myungsoo interjects warily. That’s the better question. 

“For us, like setting a person on fire, and making a person disappear and shit.” Sungyeol explains because he seriously needs to have a good complain about his stupid this job is.  

“What the fuck?” Sungjong and Myungsoo ask in unison.

Sungyeol is starting to see a common theme of this job.

 

♙♙♙

 JUNE 2013

 

Since the rest of the team had interrogated him about Kibum, Woohyun had chosen mostly to keep to himself. Not that the others had been making any sort of an effort to seek him out, but his solitary few weeks had been purely by his own choice. 

He’s not dumb enough to think the others wouldn’t avoid him, or act awkward around him, he’s just removing himself from the situation until it settles down.

Woohyun spends most of his days in his room, glad that he got a room to himself and isn’t having to share like Dongwoo and Sunggyu or Hoya and Myungsoo. He’s pretty sure that’s by design though - no one wanting to room with him.  

After Sunggyu turns SM down, after they’ve jetted it half way across the world, Sunggyu decides they need to lay low for a couple of weeks. Almost a month. Woohyun doesn’t mind, the longer he can separate himself from the team the better (although he knows on some level staying away from them is going to let thing fester).

Still, there are members of the team that get restless, he can see that even having bare interactions with them. 

Case in point, he’s minding his own business in his room one day when the door slams open and a figure darts inside before it shuts again as quickly as it opened.

“Sure, come right in,” Woohyun says dryly to Hoya who is now sitting on the floor with his back against the door, “Thank you for knocking.”

Hoya glares at him, “Keep your voice down,”

“What the fuck are you doing?” Woohyun has to ask, wondering if they’re under attack or something. It seems unlikely, but you never know with SM around, and plus Hoya’s being … weird. “What’s going on?”

“We haven’t had a job in too long,” Hoya says, bringing his knees to his chest and resting his arms on his knees, “Sungyeol and Soo are bored.”

“Oh?” Woohyun asks before his brain catches up, “Oh really, are they pranking?”

“Stupid juvenile pranks,” Hoya bangs his head backwards into the door with a dull thud that is probably louder than Woohyun talking was, “I think they put a bowl of something on top of our bedroom door.”

“Wow, that _is_ juvenile,” Woohyun says,

“Pretty sure Soo is going to forget it’s there and get himself first,” Hoya says with a smirk. He’s right, that does sound like something Myungsoo would do, and Sungyeol would let him and laugh in the aftermath because that’s something Sungyeol would do, “But it does mean my room is off limits for hiding out.”

“Should we be glad that’s all they’re doing?” Has to ask.

“That’s not all they’re doing,” Hoya says shooting Woohyun a look like he’s a bit slow, which is pretty rude considering Hoya is the one who’s come barging into his room.

“What else are they doing?” Woohyun asks, “They haven’t recruited Sungjong have they?” That’s about the only point he’d start to worry. 

“No, I think Sungjong is probably going to be plotting their downfall by the end of the week though,” Hoya says, as though Sungjong wasn’t constantly plotting Sungyeol’s downfall. Woohyun will never understand their dynamic and he probably never wants to. 

“I’m surprised you’re in their crosshairs,” Woohyun says teasingly. It’s not strictly true, Hoya and Myungsoo can bicker like the best of them, but Hoya is not who he’d thought would be their first target.

“Well they’ve gotten bored of everyone else,” Hoya says dryly.

Woohyun frowns, “Wait, what?” He can’t help asking. He thinks he’d have remembered if the terrible duo had come after him with shaving cream or whoopie cushions or whatever other dumb things they found funny. 

Hoya shoots him that ‘you can’t be this fucking stupid’ look again, which Woohyun still finds rather offensive, “Why do you think all of our ring tones mysteriously got interchanged with each other last week?”

“Wait,” Woohyun says, “That was them?”

“Well phones don’t usually spontaneously decide to mimic the battle cry of the phone sat next to them on the kitchen table,” Hoya tells him dryly, “What else did you assume it was,”

“Sons of bitches,” Woohyun mutters under his breath. It doesn’t surprise him, now he thinks about it that Sungyeol was involved. In a weird way it’s comforting to know that they’re targeting Hoya as well because at least this way he knows they’re just bored, not getting petty revenge on him for the Kibum thing.

Or maybe it’s both, maybe they started with him because they’re still resentful (Sungyeol is at least, if what Hoya said is true Myungsoo and Hoya have known for almost two years and never treated him any differently), but moved on because they’re mischievous and bored. 

“Yeah,” Hoya agrees simply, much to Woohyun’s surprise. 

He doesn’t make to say anything else so Woohyun scrambles to fill the silence. It’s not something he usually has trouble with, silences or filling them, but things are off balance around here, more than he wants to acknowledge. “Why are you sitting on the floor?” he eventually asks.

“I already invaded your room.” Hoya says matter-of-factly. It’s a very Hoya way of looking at things, he takes the idea of a person’s space very seriously (when it suits him), “I didn’t want to invade your space any further.” 

“Well I’m asking you to come in now,” Woohyun says, because it’s weird the way Hoya is sitting at the door, like a guard dog or something.

Hoya does, and instead of hovering by the wall like Woohyun half expected him to, comes to sit on the bottom of his bed. Woohyun hides his surprise at that because it’s not bad, just bizarre. 

Of course Woohyun sees what Hoya is trying to do here and appreciates it more than Hoya could know (or maybe Hoya does know - he has a scary way of always seeming to. On the other hand that could just be an excellent poker face).

“Why did you chose my room as your hide out?” Woohyun asks once Hoya is settled. He doesn’t expect to get the real reason - at least not the whole real reason, but what Hoya chooses to go with as an excuse will help Woohyun formulate where to go from here. 

“Well, I figured you’d be most open to helping me get revenge.” Hoya responses with that wicked grin that doesn’t come out nearly as often as it should in Woohyun’s opinion. He hasn’t seen it much since the Man in Love Job, and Woohyun was too busy being annoyed at how much enjoyment he got out of that job to appreciate it.  

“What about Sungjong?” Woohyun can’t help asking, since he seems the most natural choice to revenge prank Sungyeol seeing as he’s pranking Sungyeol every other week anyway (or he was before Sungyeol started working himself to the bone over SM).

“He doesn’t need to team up with me,” Hoya says in a way that’s probably meant to be self-deprecating. It’s really quite transparent - Sungjong and Hoya work the best together out of everyone on the rare occasions they team up - but Woohyun doesn’t call him on it, “He’s probably doing his own thing.” 

“So two sets of revenge?” Woohyun asks, playing along. “Seems extreme.”

“Look, they really, really deserve it,” Hoya says like he truly believes it, “If we just let them go unchecked they’ll think they can get away with it and get even more obnoxious than usual.”

“Alright then?” Woohyun asks, “I assume you have a master plan then, let’s hear it.”

It’s obvious what Hoya’s doing, it’s even more obvious when he insists their plan needs Sunggyu and Dongwoo’s help. Hoya knows how to be subtle so he’s clearly showing Woohyun what he’s trying to do on purpose for whatever reason.

Woohyun doesn’t pretend to know what’s going on in Hoya’s head, but he appreciates the gesture, appreciates the way by the end of their ‘planning session’ Dongwoo is laughing his ass off curled against Woohyun’s side, appreciates the way Myungsoo pouts at the end of the evening once their plans ‘gone into effect’ and the way Sungjong is insisting if they’d just let _him_ plan revenge it would have been better. 

Most of all he appreciates the team, and the effort they’re making, even if trust doesn’t come easy to them and Woohyun’s given them no reason to trust him.

It’s not much, but it’s not nothing either, and at this point, it’s more than Woohyun thought he deserved, so he’ll take it, and work from there.

 

 

♔♚♔

MAY 2013: SUNGGYU

 

“Can I just say,” Hoya says cheerfully down the comms, “You’ve had a lot of half-baked plans in the time I’ve been with you, but this might very well the yeast thought out of them all.”

The sound of someone hitting something then Sungyeol’s hiss of pain comes down the line. He’s either dropped something on himself or hit Hoya, Sunggyu can’t be sure. 

“It’s a bit late to voice your disapproval.” Sunggyu says with a sigh, “Seeing as I am _at_ the place I’m meeting with whoever SM decides to send.”

“I don’t have a better plan,” Hoya says matter-of-factly, “And it’s the best of the plans you came up with. I’m just saying we should be prepared for it to go wrong.”

“If Sunggyu is murdered Woohyun is not becoming leader,” Sungyeol says straight away, “If he does I’ll move back to Scotland, I was missing being so cold I couldn’t feel my limbs anyway.” 

“We are prepared for it to go wrong, which is why you’re all packing up and not here right now,” Sunggyu says, wanting to bang his head on the table for dramatic effect or something. He doesn’t because no one would be able to see it, except potentially whoever SM decides to send after him and that’s the last thing they need to see.  

“I’d have preferred to be actually out of the country,” Myungsoo speaks up. It’s odd, he seems to be the one most scared of SM and as far as Sunggyu is aware he’s had no dealings with SM personally. He’s not going to ask him though because Hoya would probably have his head, and keeping tension between the team as low as possible right now is a goal that already seems unachievable thanks to the drama surrounding Woohyun. Not that Sunggyu blames Woohyun (much) but Sungyeol clearly does.

“We’re not abandoning Sunggyu and Dongwoo, you big baby” Hoya scolds him with only the barest hint of scorn, “Plus they don’t even know your name, you’re fine.” 

“You can't talk, they don’t even know your face,” Sungyeol mutters under his breath. He’s been going on about how that means Hoya has an advantage over the rest of them for weeks. Hoya always responds he’d preferred if they had a picture of him because at least they’d know what SM knows, for now they could be bluffing.

It’s a tired argument, Sunggyu’s heard it so many times he’s pretty sure he had a dream about it the other night, but if that’s what they need to do to stay motivated he’s not going to complain. Much. 

“Not the time.” He does tell them though because he’d really like to concentrate.  

There a stretch of silence before Woohyun says quietly, “we’re almost done here. Everyone cleared out their own places last night, I think?” 

There’s a general murmur of agreement, quiet because Woohyun’s interactions with everyone has been quiet lately. That’s something Sunggyu will need to worry about, later, when he’s not at risk of being murdered in plain sight in the middle of a coffee shop.  

“Good, okay,” Sunggyu says, checking to make sure Dongwoo is in position and focused, since he’s been very quiet on the comms. It takes a while but eventually Dongwoo catches his eye and winks cheerfully, not subtle but at least he had refrained from waving, “Once you’re done everyone get out of there.” 

“And meet up in America, we know.” Sungjong’s voice comes down the line dryly, “Not like you’ve told us that a dozen times today alone.” 

No one has the ability to make him feel silly for wanting to be prepared quite like Sungjong, “Okay, as long as we all know.” Sunggyu says, spotting Jessica in the doorway and rushing out, “They’re here, everyone knows what to do, and if we’re captured or killed…”

“Don’t avenge you. Even though you probably really do want us to avenge you but you want to appear the stoic leader.” Is Sungyeol’s less than helpful contribution.

“We should get out of here,” Myungsoo says nervously, Sunggyu can practically see him biting his lip or fiddling with his sleeve right now. Probably both, “In case they’ve known where we live all along and are planning to ambush us right now.”

“Breathe Myungsoo,” Hoya says patiently but still clearly amused.

“They probably haven’t entertained the idea they’re going to be turned down,” Sungyeol scoffs, “Honestly if they ever do have a downfall, their arrogance will be it.” 

Sunggyu files that away for future reference.

“Here we go,” Dongwoo sing songs under his breath cheerfully as Jessica is joined by another man that Sunggyu has never seen before and heads for his location.

“Try and stall rejecting them till we’re actually out of here, just in case they really do know where we’re located ” Hoya suggests, probably humouring Myungsoo more than anything, though he could just be on a more strategically developed version of the same wavelength, “shouldn’t be too long.”

“No promises,” Sunggyu mutters as quietly as he can before he’s straightening up as Jessica stops in front of him.

“Sunggyu,” She smiles at him through her teeth, the most strained smile that Sunggyu has seen in a while (including the ones Sungyeol and Sungjong have been sending Woohyun’s way), “nice to see you again.” 

“Jessica, and your ever-evolving posse of young men,” Sunggyu greats in return, hoping to throw this man off by his ego as much as Donghae was. It doesn’t work straight away so clearly he’ll be a harder task than Donghae.

“I think there’s at least six of them scattered throughout the shop,” Dongwoo reports, speaking quietly on the comms for probably the first time in his life, “That I can see, I’m not an SM spotting expert like Hoya or Sungyeol, there are probably more.” 

“Six is already an awful lot,” Sungyeol says sounding slightly worried, “They probably suspect you’re going to attempt to do something stupid.”

“It’s been like four months without an answer from Sunggyu, I’m pretty sure they have an idea,” Is Sungjong’s dry and ever so helpful contribution.

Sunggyu would like to tell them to shut up since he’s having trouble concentrating on the bullshit the man with Jessica is spewing out (god Sunggyu hopes this guy hasn’t said his name the last thing he wants is them to know he’s barely listening, that gives them the upper hand)

Luckily he has Hoya, “Which is why you two should shut up and get a move on so _we_ can get out of here and Sunggyu can listen to things other than you two dribbling.” 

“You started the inane banter,” Sungyeol mutters under his breath, having to get the last word in, but luckily falls quiet after that.

“Sunggyu?” Jessica says, looking at him smile even more strained than before.

“This guy was literally just monologuing about the strength of SM and something about Jesus, you didn’t miss anything important.” Myungsoo supplies for him helpfully, “In fact I think I lost 10 IQ points listening to him.”

“Didn’t have any to lose,” Sungyeol says before saying, “I know, I know I’m shutting up.” Dongwoo trying to hide his giggles is doing nothing in helping him remain inconspicuous.

“Sorry, I tend to tune out when I hear bullshit, it’s a habit you pick up as leader of a team, I’m sure you understand,” Sunggyu says smoothly. The guy bristles, so it wasn’t as hard to get under his skin as Sunggyu thought. He can hear Sungyeol and Myungsoo cheering him on down the comms.

No one understands the concept of Radio silence except Woohyun apparently.

“You’d do well to lose that arrogance Kim Sunggyu of Jeonju,” The still nameless man says. Sunggyu doesn’t bat an eyelid, if they found them he knows they found his history at least since he made no effort to hide it. 

He can see Dongwoo stiffen out of the corner of his eye though, and he makes a note to see if Sungyeol can get in touch with Ailee for him. 

“I’ll keep that in mind thank you unknown person” Sunggyu says coolly, wondering if it would be a bad idea to make a game of ruffling this guy’s feathers, “Your ability to do a basic google search has me trembling in my boots.” 

He probably couldn’t piss SM off more than rejecting them. 

“Sunggyu, this is Siwon,” Jessica says. Oh, now Sunggyu has heard of _him_ , they really are sending out the big guns or so it seems.

“Pleasure,” Sunggyu says with as much scorn as he can imbue his voice with, “Why don’t you take a seat?” he offers.

Siwon slides into the booth opposite him with Jessica following him, “What can I do for you?” 

“You’re the one that called this meeting,” Siwon says stiffly. God and Sunggyu’s team claim he has a stick up his ass, if only they could see this guy. 

“Well, I figured your organisation’s interference in my jobs was your way of telling me you wanted to talk,” Sunggyu says carefully, “Or was that just the way of showing that you were thinking of us?” 

“Think of it more like a friendly reminder,” Jessica says diplomatically. Sunggyu wonders about her, why she seems so opposed to everything but is still here, trying to coerce him. 

“It’s not polite to leave a job offer hanging,” Siwon interjects. Sunggyu really wants to punch him in his smarmy face but that would probably just end up with a broken hand for him, “especially not one so generous.” 

“Yes, well I was under the impressions it wasn’t so much of an offer,” Sunggyu says. 

“Careful,” Hoya’s voice comes over the comms, “You’re awfully close to a rejection and we still need five minutes or so,” 

Sunggyu wants to tell Hoya he’ll get what he can fucking get, since he’s not the one that has to deal with SM goons but he doesn’t have the chance, without giving up the opportunity he was given. 

“What else would it be?” Jessica asks with a wide eyed fax innocence that really doesn’t suit her. 

“A strongly worded suggestion, an ultimatum, a threat, coercion,” Sunggyu counts off on his fingers.

Hoya swears, then sighs “Everyone out, we don’t need the contents of the fridge, or the appliances, we can afford new ones. Just get out.”  

Surprisingly there’s not a word of complaint from the others.

“SM would never force you to do anything,” Siwon says with a smile that looks grotesque and forced. Sunggyu might be projecting, or maybe he’s forgotten how to do it being with SM for so long. 

“Really?” Sunggyu says as if that’s news to him (it is. It’s also a lie), “Well then they won’t be offended when we say we appreciate the generous offer, but we’re quite content doing our own thing at the moment.”

Siwon gapes at him, like he’s surprised by the gall Sunggyu has, to reject his great overlord or something. Which is stupid considering everyone at the table had known Sunggyu was going to turn them down.

“They won’t be offended,” Jessica says, reaching across the table till her hands are just in front of Sunggyu’s but not touching them, “But they would ask you come to headquarters and strongly reconsider,” She’s flicking her eyes to a point somewhere over Sunggyu’s shoulder, but he doesn’t dare look for fear it’s some sort of trap. 

“I’m afraid I have to listen to the wants of my team, after all a leader who doesn’t respect their team’s opinions is a pretty shitty leader.” Sunggyu says. Jessica’s eyes keep flicking over his shoulder, and considering last time he wrote off an annoying tick of hers it was a secret message, he figures he should check it out.

“Someone better be recording this,” He hears Sungyeol mutters under his breath. 

“That’d be your job.” Myungsoo supplies helpfully.

“Shut up,” That’s Hoya. He can always count on Hoya’s military training to back him up, even if not Hoya himself.

“When your team hears what they have to say I’m sure they’ll reconsider,” Siwon says in a way that’s probably meant to be smooth but just sounds like he’s talking through his teeth.

Jessica’s eyes flick once more, frantically this time, so Sunggyu looks over his shoulder. And almost swears. Dongwoo isn’t sitting where he was before. Which wouldn’t be a problem exactly, except running his eyes around the room Sunggyu can’t see him at all, and he hadn’t said anything about moving position. 

“I see you’re really giving me a choice here,” Sunggyu says dryly, “Testing my loyalty?”

Hoya and Sungyeol swear in synch, “What did they do to Dongwoo?” Sungyeol asks low and frantic. There’s a gasp at that, it could be anyone, Sunggyu doesn’t know.  

“Dongwoo listened to reason, he’s come to headquarters to listen to the proposition,” Siwon says smoothly, Jessica shaking her head slightly in the background, “You’d be best of doing the same.”

“Fuck, Sunggyu don’t you fucking _dare_.” Hoya says low and frantic, “It’s the most obvious trap I’ve ever seen.”

 “But what about Dongwoo, do they really have him?” Myungsoo asks sounding legitimately afraid. 

 “Would he be radio silent if they hadn’t?” Sungjong asks reasonably, though even his usually controlled voice sounds shaken

“They could have knocked out his comm and that’s it for all we know,” Sungyeol says consideringly, “It seems like something they’d do.” 

“Can we risk it?” Woohyun says quietly. 

“We’re better off getting Sunggyu to leave then reconvening and coming up with a better plan that takes them off guard.” That’s Hoya, and Sunggyu agrees with the logic but it’s _Dongwoo_.

Thank fuck, thank all Sunggyu’s lucky stars that he doesn’t have to make the choice because Dongwoo’s words are filtering over the comm system low and frantic, “I’m fine. They don’t have me, I’m fine but get _out_ of there Sunggyu.” 

Sunggyu looks and Jessica and Siwon, ‘patiently’ waiting for his answer, from the smug look on Siwon’s face to the veiled concern on Jessica’s. Sunggyu stands, “Thank you for the offer, but I think I’ll pass. Please pass onto your boss my regards but firm denial of the offer,” he says before briskly walking from the room. 

He’s shocked them clearly because Siwon swears and makes to get up but can’t because Jessica is in his way. He swears at her, and she winks at Sunggyu, before apologising profusely to Siwon and tumbling out of the booth. Siwon follows him, along with seven other random customers (Sunggyu makes a note to tell Dongwoo he only missed one) but Sunggyu has enough of a head start he’s out of the cafe before any of them really get started.

Sunggyu looks around wondering what he’s going to do when he spots someone he’s never seen before waving at him from the curb, following the person’s eyes he notices Dongwoo sitting behind the wheel of a car of some sort and Sunggyu doesn’t question it, bolting towards the car and hopping in. 

He pays no mind of the mysterious waving figure as Dongwoo speeds away, “We’re both okay,” Sunggyu decides to fill the others in because they must be worrying, “And I don’t think they’re following us.” 

“Drive around a bit just in case,” Hoya says but the relief is evident in his voice. 

“What the fuck happened Dongwoo? Why did you go radio silent?” Sungyeol demands, seemingly snippy now that they know Dongwoo is unharmed.

“One of SM’s goons let me know what was happening,” Dongwoo says, concentrating on the road in the way he does whenever he’s driving - the best driver Sunggyu knows, “Also he said to tell Woohyun, this,” Dongwoo says handing a note over to Sunggyu before saying sheepishly, “I told him I wouldn’t remember.” 

Sunggyu unfolds the note reading it with a frown. This makes things complicated.

“Tell us what it says,” Sungjong demands impatiently. 

“It says,” Sunggyu says clearing his throat, “Key wants Woohyun to know that, and I quote ‘that’s three you owe me now punk, I’ll be collecting’,”

Woohyun lets out a watery chuckle at that, Sunggyu doesn’t find it funny he finds it concerning they apparently owe anyone from SM one, helping them or not.

“Who?” Myungsoo asks, still sounding shaken.

“Kibum,” Woohyun says clearly smiling, “That fucking bastard saved our ass again.”

Sunggyu’s not sure he likes being in debt to Kim Kibum, but it’s a damn sight better than what might have happened.

They’ve bought themselves some time, but it’s not going to be a lot. He really needs a plan to neutralise SM for good, he thinks leaning back into his seat, and fast.

 

 

♟♟♟

SEPTEMBER 2014

 

Myungsoo really, really hates that he’s feeling the way he’s feeling.

Hates the conflicted feelings swirling around in his brain, the jealousy bubbling up from the parts of him he wishes didn’t exist and consuming him. Hates the part of him like some kind of wild animal that wants to snarl and scratch and protect what’s his.  

Despite the fact he knows that his team mean them no harm, knows that they all love him dearly, part of him sees them as a threat. That part of him that was alone for so, so long it latched onto the first person that showed him any sort of affection doesn’t want to _share_ that person. 

It’s not an uncommon feeling for Myungsoo, the burning jealousy, but it’s stronger than ever right now so he does the only thing that he knows will help. 

He turns the light off in their bedroom and crawls underneath the covers of the bed, curling up small and waiting for Howon to come back to him. 

Just as Myungsoo had hoped would happen, when Howon eventually returns, he notices he’s there before he even turns the light on. “Soo,” he says gently, not turning the light on and making his way to the bed in the dark without even stumbling despite the fact his ankle is still not better. Stupid ninja skills, “What’s wrong?” 

“Do you ever not want to be here?” Myungsoo asks as Howon climbs onto the bed next to him but not quite touching him yet. He doesn’t like that - he wants to be touching people always, especially Howon.

Howon’s quite for a while, like he’s thinking carefully which annoys Myungsoo more than it should. He shouldn’t have to think about it since the fact he disappears so often means that there are clearly times he doesn’t want to be here. “Sometimes.”

“So you just leave for no reason then?” Myungsoo asks sarcastically. Leave me he’d almost said which is stupid because he’s starting to realise it’s not about him. 

“Soo, you know why I do it.” Howon says with a sigh. Myungsoo feels guilty automatically, so he rolls onto his side and looks at Howon. Howon mirrors him so they’re lying facing each other, practically nose to nose but still not touching. Myungsoo doesn’t like that, “What’s really up?” 

Myungsoo wets his lips. Thinks about what he wants to say. He doesn’t know is the thing, what he wants to say or what he feels, beyond this low simmer of jealousy and possessiveness, “I like everyone. I like them a lot. But sometimes I miss when it was just us,” he whispers. He doesn’t explicitly say ‘when I had you to myself’ but Howon knows him and his issues with possession enough that he obviously hears it.  

“I miss it as well Soo,” Howon answers without hesitation. It eases Myungsoo’s fears a little, settles the ugly churning in his stomach slightly. It will probably never go away though - not when it comes to Howon. 

“I’m sorry,” Myungsoo says, unable to resist as he launches himself at Howon across the bed and wraps himself around him. “I’m being stupid.” 

“Your feelings are never stupid Myungsoo,” Howon says, wrapping his securing and steadying arms. Howon’s arms always make him feel better though, or just touching Howon in general. Myungsoo is of the firm belief everyone has a little tiny bit of magic in them and that must be Howon’s magic. “You taught me that remember?” Howon grins at him teasingly. Myungsoo doesn’t want to be teased though he just wants to know what he wants. 

“Myungsoo, if you want to leave just say the word and we can go,” Howon tells him, so achingly sincere. Myungsoo knows that he means it as well, which is the worst part because that would make Myungsoo so so selfish. No the worst part is he’s sorely tempted to be selfish. 

“You want to be here though,” Myungsoo says, burying his face in Howon’s neck so that he doesn’t have to look at him as he’s eaten alive by selfish wants and guilt.  

“You were the one that decided to stay first Soo,” Howon says gently. He was. He was and that was his decision and he never regrets it except for when he does. “If you don’t want to be here I don’t want to be here.”

That’s a lie. That’s a lie because Howon is growing to love these people. Growing to love these people the same way Myungsoo is but he’s not sure if that’s enough anymore. Or maybe that’s what scaring him. The thought that just as he might have to share his affection around Howon might be doing the same. “Myungsoo stop it.” Howon says, sharp but gentle but oh so compassionate. “What do you want?”

“You,” Myungsoo whispers, mouth pressed to Howon’s neck in the hope that he won’t be heard.

This is Howon though, and of course he hears, “You have me Soo, you’ve had me for a long time.”

But I don’t have all of you anymore, is what Myungsoo wants to say, I have to share you with Sungyeol and Dongwoo and Sunggyu and Woohyun (he’s always been sharing with Sungjong but that’s different; Sungjong was here first). He doesn’t say it and he doesn’t know if Howon hears it. He thinks that he must not be able to because he’d be trying to reassure him if he could. 

For the first time ever he doesn’t think Howon can hear what he’s shouting but not saying and that scares him more than anything else ever could. 

“Myungsoo,” Howon rolls them over so that he’s pinned Myungsoo to the bed and is hovering over him. “Myungsoo look at me.” 

Reluctantly Myungsoo does because Howon has asked and he will _always_ do what Howon wants.  

“We don’t have to go forever. We don’t have to go at all. We can go and disappear so well that Sungyeol never finds us or do something in between.” He says seriously, Myungsoo can see how sincere he is despite the fact the room is basically in pitch darkness, “you just need to tell me what you want.”

Myungsoo swallows and nods. He wishes he knew. He wishes he was Sungyeol or Sungjong, so self-assured in what they wanted and more importantly what their places were, in the team and in life in general. He isn’t though, he is just Myungsoo, the boy who has spent his whole life so lost in someone else that he only knows how to be himself when he’s with Howon.  

“Myungsoo,” Howon says patiently and gently and all those lovely things that Howon is right down to his core no matter how misguidedly he feels otherwise, “Do you want to go?”

Myungsoo wets his lip with his tongue again. Pauses. Nods, “Yes.” 

“Okay,” Howon says, wrapping Myungsoo so tightly in his arms that he feels like he’s going to break into dust and meld into Howon’s skin, “Okay, we’ll go.”

 

 

 

By the time Sungjong, the earliest riser of them all, gets up in the morning Myungsoo and Hoya are long gone.  

 

**END : PART ONE**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm quite nervous about some of these scenes, and finally revealing more of the plot, so please be kind :)
> 
> I’m trying something a little bit different with the next 2/3 chapters (depending how many words I spew out). Because of what it is I want to finish all of the chapters for this interlude before I post them - and considering I won’t be home next Sunday I figured that’s a sign that whilst I write them all out fully I probably won’t post for a couple of weeks.
> 
> Essentially there's definitely no update next week, it could be 2-3 weeks, it depends on how motivated I am but I'm determined to make it less than a month. Sorry in advance but I'm really excited for the plot of the interlude so hopefully it's worth the wait :) (and the length of this one, kind of makes up for it?)


	12. Interlude: In violent times, you shouldn’t have to sell your soul

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back! I wanted to be finished and publishing by last week but neither of those things happened. I've not actually finished the interlude like I wanted but I'm up to the main climax scene (and have written some of the scenes after it) so I'm fairly confident that nothing is missing/going to need changed after this. Plus if I leave it any longer i won't reach my goal of having this finished before my family holiday in Jan/Feb when I won't be able to write so much.
> 
> I intended for this to be three chapters but at this rate it's going to be at least 5 chapters of 10,000 words each - aka almost doubling the length of this fic.
> 
> I have no restraint so apologies in advance. This interlude is basically a chronological story of a job that is super important to the plot of this fic - it needs to be told but it’s not a story of it’s own. If that makes sense, I rarely do.

 

**Interlude: In violent times, you shouldn’t have to sell your soul**

**o1.**

☆★☆

 

 _I don't need you to understand_  
_It's not what I had planned_  
_All the hunger, all the yearning_  
_With the lifeline, that you're burning_  
_Poison lessons that you're learning  
__The road ahead is turning_  

☆★☆

 

 **The Fuck SM’s Shit Up Job  
****2013: August**  

 **Target: SM : Evil Incorporated**  
**Client: The Good and Honest People of Planet Earth  
** **Location: Seoul, SK**

**Status: The dumbest plan Sunggyu has ever had**

 

 

♟♟♟

 

Sunggyu gives them less than a week of down time after the Destiny Job (6 days, 4 hours and 12 minutes Sungyeol tells them all gleefully - he apparently had a timer set up) before he’s calling them all together for a ‘serious discussion.’

“So,” he says when Dongwoo, the last person into the room, is settled, “We need to do something about SM.”

The room erupts into a burst of noise that Myungsoo can hardly keep track of. Only Howon is quiet, shooting Myungsoo a knowing look from his position next to Sunggyu across the room. Myungsoo isn’t sure if that means he knows what is going on, or if he just agrees this group of people is a mess.

“You can’t just start a sentence with a so,” Sungyeol’s voice rises above all others because Sungyeol’s voice always does. Myungsoo is pretty sure his one little bit of magic is always being the loudest person in the room, “None of us are following you, have you been practicing your conversations in your head again?”

“I thought we had been doing something,” is Sungjong’s contribution, “At least isn’t that the reason you gave for leaving the Destiny job in Woohyun’s hands?”

“Or we could just ignore them and hope they go away,” Woohyun suggests. Whilst it’s clearly a joke, even the idea of it makes Myungsoo’s stomach twist unpleasantly.

Whatever Dongwoo’s saying, Myungsoo can’t figure out the words. They’re all going to give him a headache, the worst he’s had in a while, though he’s always known that his headaches are tied to his stress levels, so it’s not that surprising. 

Sunggyu lets the cacophony of noise go on for all of thirty seconds (thirty seconds too long in Myungsoo’s opinion) before he’s growling a “shut up,” that makes the room fall silent.

“If your attempts at being stand-up comedians have all finished,” Sunggyu says with a sigh, leaning against the desk he’s standing in front of, “Could we all please pay attention.”

“You want to take out SM,” Sungyeol says in that unaffected drawl of his that Myungsoo really, really hates. It doesn’t feel like his best friend, it feels like a total stranger, though thankfully Sungyeol has been doing it less and less these days. SM brings it out in him which Myungsoo guesses he could excuse, “we heard. Whilst we’re at it why don’t we also look for a magic portal to hell, I’m sure we’d have more luck with that job anyway.”

Myungsoo elbows Sungyeol in the side at the same time Sungjong smacks him on the shoulder. Sungyeol winces slightly so maybe they were a bit hard. Myungsoo’s not sorry though.

“How are we going to do that?” Woohyun asks, with a weary sigh “They’re so well connected that we can’t get them arrested, and there’s no way the seven of us can take down that entire organisation, with all its branches and ‘employees’, stealing their assets would be a death sentence for us, what is there left? Blackmail?” 

“All of the above,” Sunggyu says with a smirk.

It’s a shocking statement, but instead of more noise it brings a stunned sort of silence.

“How exactly are we going to do that?” Sungjong finally asks as Sungyeol starts muttering under his breath about how power has finally corrupted Sunggyu’s brain beyond any sort of common sense. Myungsoo doesn’t totally disagree with him, considering the nonsense that Sunggyu is spouting. 

“SM don’t have every politician in their pocket, there’s no way they could possibly afford every politician in East Asia,” Sunggyu starts explaining, looking all the world like Myungsoo’s 3rd-grade teacher. He really hated that guy, though Sunggyu not so much.

“Right,” Howon says slowly, following along, “But the danger is in the fact they have enough of them in their pocket to have influence anywhere and the fact they’re very discreet, no one knows exactly who is on their books and who’s not.” Myungsoo’s sure now that Howon doesn’t know what Sunggyu’s plan is, but he’s going to back Sunggyu up regardless. 

Myungsoo would be proud of him, except he’s not sure he following Sunggyu’s plan, it sounds a bit insane to him. Even though no plan has been outlined, the thought process itself seems messy to say the least.

“So you want to weed out who is in SM’s pocket and who isn’t,” Sungjong says nodding along.

“Oh because that’s going to be a whole lot easier than taking SM down,” Sungyeol rolls his eyes.

“Would you shut up with your negativity for five seconds,” Myungsoo hisses under his breath, hoping no one else hears him (Sungjong clearly does by the look he shoots Myungsoo, but Myungsoo’s not particularly concerned with what Sungjong thinks of him). Sungyeol looks at him in shock, but does sink back into his seat petulantly so hopefully he’s going to pout and stop with the snarky comments for at least five minutes. 

“You want to blackmail SM with the names of their government contacts?” Dongwoo asks frowning in confusion. That’s a good point, there are so many elements here that Sunggyu hasn’t explained and they’re making Myungsoo’s head ache. 

If this is what Sunggyu’s brainstorming process is like, being let in on it is a privilege that Sungyeol can keep for himself. Myungsoo, for his part, much prefers just hearing the final plan and being straight up told what to do.

“No, he wants to trick or coerce SM into telling him the name of some of their contacts, the people in their pocket.” Sungyeol says. For all that he mocks Sunggyu relentlessly, Myungsoo’s always felt like Sungyeol is the person most likely to be on the same wavelength as Sunggyu - Howon can almost always follow what Sunggyu is saying but Myungsoo knows first-hand that he doesn’t always agree.

“And then get that list of names to the few moral politicians out there in the hope that they’ll do something to stop SM,” Hoya finishes the sentence, “Sunggyu’s putting a bit too much faith in the honesty of politicians I think.”

“Well we’ve just got to make it more worth their while for them to try and clean SM up,” Sunggyu says as if that’s easy. Sunggyu seems to think a lot of things in this world require a lot less effort than they do, but this sounds like the most ridiculous request he’s ever come up with. 

“Oh yeah because…” Sungyeol starts to say before trailing off, “Public pressure, that’s your plan isn’t it?”

“Exactly,” Sunggyu says with a smirk, clearly pleased that someone is now following along with his genius. If only they’d enlighten the rest of them. 

“That’s a bold fucking plan,” Sungyeol says but he sounds genuinely impressed now, which makes him much more likeable. 

“It could work, if we can pull it off,” Howon agrees with a nod. With Howon and Sungyeol both on board this plan is clearly going ahead. Myungsoo would still appreciate being let in on it.

“We can pull it off.” Sunggyu says, full of confidence. “We might need to call in a favour or two,” 

“Or seven,” Sungyeol interjects again but it’s more playful than anything now.

“But we can do it.” Sunggyu finishes as if he hasn’t been interrupted at all.

“So we reveal to the public SM’s underhanded activities and at least some of the names of the politicians that they have in their pocket and hope that public outrage is enough to motivate the politicians not in their pockets to do something about SM, shut them down, seize assets, put powerful people in jail.” Woohyun summarises.

When it’s put like that, it’s a very simple to follow plan. Sunggyu could have just explained it like that from the beginning, if he didn’t enjoy being cryptic so much. 

It’s an easy to follow plan but not necessarily easy to pull off, “How do we get SM to reveal to us the names of the politicians in their books?” Sungjong asks.

“I could probably follow the money,” Sungyeol offers. They all know this isn’t what Sunggyu has planned though.

“I want you working that angle, but it could take months, and that’s months that SM could be using to track us down,” Sunggyu says, rather convincingly. Half the time Myungsoo is sure Sunggyu thinks he’s delivering a rousing motivational speech from a sports movie or something, “No we need to take the fight to them.”

“We’re going to have to go back to Seoul aren’t we?” Myungsoo speaks up for the first time. He really hates Seoul.

“It is SM’s base of operations,” Sunggyu says with an apologetic shrug. At least he knows now that Myungsoo has good reasons for his Seoul aversion and is pretending to feel a little bad.

“All the more reason not to go,” It’s not Sungyeol making the snarky comment this time but Woohyun. Hitting him probably won’t have the same effect so Myungsoo just hopes that he stops with the pointless negativity soon.

“We need to do it,” Dongwoo says quietly but firmly. Once Dongwoo has spoken, the issue is essentially settled and they all know it.

“We have to be careful the make sure the media is not in SM’s pocket as well,” Woohyun says, to his credit accepting Dongwoo’s words and moving on with no further complaints.

“Or we bypass the old media completely, and go for new media.” Sungyeol points out with a scoff, “I thought Hoya was meant to be the technologically incompetent one here.”

“Or,” Sunggyu speaks up, clearly having thought through this part of the plan already, of course he has, “We bypass all media completely.”

“Okay,” Sungyeol says, lacing his fingers together and leaning forward on his knees a clear sign he is totally invested now, “Pray tell how we’re going to reach a large chunk of the Korean population with no source of media. As if this job wasn’t fucking insane enough.”

“Alright,” Sunggyu says rubbing his hands together, he’s clearly been waiting for a chance to explain the details of his genius plan, “Here’s what I have for the plan so far.”

They’ll need a miracle to pull this off, Myungsoo is sure, but then again they were always going to need a miracle to get SM off their back.

Besides, they’ve created miracles before, Myungsoo has faith that they’ll be able to pull one off again.

 

 

♝♝♝

Sungyeol is very, very used to Sungjong dropping in on him and anyone he damn well pleases unannounced (Woohyun had once jokingly said they should buy a house without a roof space or vents to give Sungjong a challenge, but privately Sungyeol’s not sure Sungjong would even consider that a challenge). What he’s not used to Sungjong dropping into his bedroom unannounced.

Usually bedrooms are off limits to each other by a mutual but unspoken agreement. Some people enforce it more strongly than others, the door to Dongwoo and Sunggyu’s bedrooms is almost always open whereas Sungyeol thinks he’s the only one that’s even had a glimpse of the inside of the room Myungsoo and Hoya share, but coming in unannounced is rarely ever done.

Of course it’s Sungjong that ends up ignoring that ‘rule’.

Sungyeol is so taken off guard by Sungjong’s sudden appearances that he flinches so hard his laptop almost slides from his lap and onto the floor. Almost but not quite because Sungyeol’s reflexes are nothing to be scoffed at, thank you very much.

“Shouldn’t you be packing,” Sungjong asks as he takes a seat on the empty desk, like he’s picking up the middle of a conversation and hasn’t just ambushed Sungyeol’s personal space.

“Done,” Sungyeol says absently, gesturing to the backpack leaning by the doorway, the one that he always keeps packed with clean clothes and spare cords and such. His laptop and phone will go in there, and most of the other pieces of technology he uses Hoya helped him pack up yesterday.

“That’s all you’re taking?” Sungjong asks, looking not concerned or sad or anything, just pensive.

“Not all of us are quite as materialistic as you Sungjong,” Sungyeol says teasingly. He’s seen the number of suitcases and boxes that Sungjong carts around between every place they go, and that doesn’t include the storage spaces he probably has in every major city in the world. 

“Fuck you,” is Sungjong’s prompt reply, “Even Howon has more stuff than you.”

“Does he really,” Sungyeol can’t help but ask, “Or is he just carting round some of Myungsoo’s stuff for him. Maybe yours as well,”

“What is the point in being a thief if you don’t have stuff?” Sungjong asks him, swinging his legs over the edge of the desk in a way that strangely reminds Sungyeol of Myungsoo.

“I like having money, enough money to go anywhere I want or need to” Sungyeol explains with a shrug, “I like hacking people, not necessarily for money.” 

“No, your ‘most brilliant jobs’ have all been for mischief right?” Sungjong asks dryly.

“Yeah, mischief is much less likely to get you in trouble,” Sungyeol says, wondering if Sungjong has actually come to see him for a reason or if he’s just bored.

“Sungyeol,” Sungjong says, suddenly serious. That answers that question then, “Are you sure about this.” 

“Sure about what?” Sungyeol asks, going for light, “Being fully packed? Because yeah this is actually packing heavy for me, I’ve got heaps of experience packing light.”

He curses himself as soon as the words leave his mouth. That’s hardly going to convince Sungjong that he’s fine. Or okay. Or whatever it is Sungjong thinks he’s not.

Sungjong doesn’t say anything, just looks at him in a way that’s almost sad. If that was an emotion Sungjong allowed himself to show the world.

“Am I sure about the plan? Because I spend the entirety of it behind a computer, it’s really Myungsoo and Sunggyu you should be concerned about.” Sungyeol says flippantly, looking back at his laptop to make it seem like he doesn’t care even though he can’t exactly focus on the screen at the moment.

“They’re not the ones with personal SM experience.” Sungjong says levelly.

“Woohyun has,” Sungyeol says, his voice coming across more bitter than he’d like. It’s not that he’s completely resentful of Woohyun now or anything, it’s just mistrust, hovering beneath the surface of his consciousness, deep enough he can ignore it well enough. Mostly.

Sungjong purses his lips like he disapproves. Sungyeol’s not entirely sure when or why Sungjong decided to become his own personal guard dog, or how he feels about it. It’s nice he supposes, that someone cares about his mental wellbeing, but unnecessary. 

He despises SM and everything they’ve done to him, which is exactly why he’s cautiously optimistic about this plan.

“I’m sure Sungjong,” Sungyeol says, putting his laptop aside (after triple checking his work has been saved), “Trust me, nothing will feel better than the double pronged attack of getting revenge and making SM even slightly less powerful. It’ll be risky but I think we can pull it off.”

“Okay,” Sungjong inclines his head, “Was that so hard?” He says, sounding like he’s teasing, but something in his expression still looking slightly off. Sungyeol can’t put his finger on what that thing is though so he doesn’t push it.

“What about you?” Sungyeol asks, turning the interrogation back around because if he’s required to ‘talk’ then he’s going to make Sungjong do it too.

“What about me?” Sungjong asks, crossing his legs now and putting his feet on Sungyeol’s desk. Sungyeol would be annoyed, if they weren’t about to leave this place.

“Well how do you feel about this plan? Taking SM down?” Sungyeol asks. He’s teasing, but he’s also curious. Everyone else has made their opinions known or at least given something away, but not Sungjong.

“I think it’s the stupidest, riskiest plan that Sunggyu could have possibly come up with and you’re all fucking idiots for not being slightly more concerned, or at least aware of all the risks.” Sungjong says. He says it so blandly he might as well be talking about the weather but Sungyeol double takes at the venom in the words, 

“Tell us how you really feel,” He says dryly, because sarcasm is the only way he knows how to respond to that.

“You asked, I answered.” Sungjong shrugs, “Answered honestly. It’s a simple concept but one you might not be familiar with.”

“Did you come in here to insult me Sungjong?” Sungyeol asks coolly, “Did you want something?”

He’s mostly joking, though he is curious why Sungjong is here. He’s really surprised then when Sungjong gets… flustered is the word he’d use to describe it for anyone else but Sungjong doesn’t get flustered, “No, I,” he’s almost blushing now, “I just wanted to see that you were okay with this.”

“You seem awfully convinced that I wouldn’t be okay with this,” Sungyeol says with amusement, “Is there any particular reason? Do you know something I don’t?”

“I might have accidentally heard you talking Sunggyu about SM, that one time,” Sungjong says vaguely. Sungyeol still knows exactly what time he’s talking about though. He must look as incredulous as he feels (even though it really shouldn’t be any sort of surprise that Sungjong stuck around to eavesdrop) because he says defensively, “I wanted to make sure Sunggyu wasn’t about to overwork you again.”

Sungyeol really needs to look into this guard dog thing more because Sungjong is starting to become a bit overbearing about it, and has been for longer than Sungyeol has noticed apparently.

“It’s going to be really, really hard.” Sungyeol admits, dropping all pretences if Sungjong knows he’s never wanted his team to know (except Hoya - he told Hoya years ago because Hoya gets it). Though if Sungjong has known and not said anything or treated him differently maybe he can let it go, “I’m probably going to feel shitty and paranoid and not sleep at night for however long the job takes, but if we pull it off and I really think we will because Sunggyu has never led us wrong before, then I’ll feel so much more secure in the long run, so I’ll take it.” Sungyeol says. Then because he feels so incredibly awkward about being so honest, he adds “Plus I could never let Myungsoo take SM down without me, I’d never hear the end of it.”

Sungjong doesn’t even seem to register the joke, instead he’s looking at Sungyeol in this odd way, almost soft, like he’s seeing Sungyeol for the first time, “Thank you,” He says.

“For what?” Sungyeol asks because he’s genuinely confused.

 He doesn’t get to find out what Sungjong is thanking him for because they’re interrupted by a knock on the door. Sungjong looks frustrated.

“Yeah?” Sungyeol calls out, wondering who it is. 

“Hey,” Woohyun pushes the door open, taking Sungyeol’s acknowledgement as an invitation (it basically was), “Can we talk?” Then he notices Sungjong, “Oh, sorry am I interrupting? I can come back.”

Sungyeol is tempted to tell him to come back though he also knows that Woohyun probably worked up a lot of nerve to come here and he’s not likely to actually come back if Sungyeol tells him to.

Sungjong makes the decision for him, “No it’s okay,” he says making an action as simple as hopping off the desk look supremely graceful. Sungyeol is forever in awe of how he does it, “I have to go pack my stuff up anyway.”

“If you’re sure,” Woohyun says even as Sungjong walks past him.

“Yeah, he’s going to need days to pack all his shit up anyway,” Sungyeol calls after Sungjong’s receding form.

Sungjong flips him off, “Ooh that was a mistake,” Woohyun says, closing the door behind him and sitting at the desk Sungjong just vacated (though on the actual chair this time), “Pissing off the husband, I’d watch your phone for now.” 

“You’re so weird,” Sungyeol rolls his eyes, wanting the pick up his laptop to put more space between himself and Woohyun but deciding to be the bigger person.

“Huh,” Woohyun says as if he’s just realising something before sighing, “Look, I think before we get to Seoul we need to talk.”

 “Why does everyone want to talk today?” Sungyeol whines banging his head against the back of the wall, which alarms Woohyun if the way his eyes widen is any sort of indication, “Is it international feelings day or something?”

“Okay, I really can come back another time,” Woohyun says making as if to get up. He’s probably bluffing, the melodramatic bastard, but Sungyeol sighs.

“Nah if we’re being emotional and shit might as well get it out in one go,” that’s his philosophy in life at least, then if he never has to talk about feelings again it won’t be too soon. 

“Emotions?” Woohyun says with a shudder. It’s put on as a joke but Sungyeol wonders if Woohyun knows how true it is for himself, “I just want to get this square.”

“Get what square?” Sungyeol asks suspiciously. He’d definitely rather talk about feelings and emotional wellbeing than hash out anything with Woohyun. 

“That you resent me for being friends with Kibum, or I was friends with Kibum,” Woohyun says with a frown, “You hacked my everything you should know that I really hadn’t talked to him before everything.” 

“As you and Sunggyu constantly remind me, not everything happens on the internet,” Sungyeol can’t help pointing out snidely just to be difficult. It’s annoying though, that Woohyun doesn’t seem to understand this isn’t about him knowing Kibum, they’ve all got friends in their past they’re not proud of - heck Hoya even has associations with Kim Hyuna - it’s the lack of disclosure that’s making him doubt Woohyun.

“Sungyeol, come on I swear,” Woohyun says imploringly. That’s another thing Sungyeol doesn’t trust Woohyun with, emotional honesty, he’s always wearing a mask. Sungyeol gets not sharing the deep or emotional parts of yourself, the ugly parts you want no one to see, they’re all doing that. Where Woohyun is making him nervous is the fact he feels like Woohyun has shown them almost nothing of his real self. 

“I don’t care that you’re friends with Kibum. I couldn’t give two fucking tosses if you got together for Italian food and blow jobs every Sunday evening. It’s your fucking life.” Sungyeol says louder than he’d like, “I don’t fucking hate Kibum, I more than anyone else here know how easy it is to get tangled up with SM against your will and he’s shown us twice he’s willing to help us out so he must regret it somewhat,” Sungyeol says.

He’d never really thought about it before but as he’s saying the words he realises they’re true; he has sympathy for those tied up in SM with no way to get out. It’s those goons that truly believe the shit they’re spouting (Siwon had sounded like a piece of work) he has a problem with.

“Then what do you have a problem with?” Woohyun asks, matching his aggression, “Because you clearly do, more than anyone else.”

“Or maybe everyone else is just better at hiding it than me,” Sungyeol mutters, just loud enough for Woohyun to hear him. He’s being petty he knows, Woohyun’s going to be paranoid now that everyone on the team is against him, but he feels better in that moment.

The pained look that flashes across Woohyun’s face just for a second is funny, if Sungyeol pushes the guilt aside, “The reason I’m pissed off is because you didn’t fucking tell us,” Sungyeol decides to take pity on Woohyun, “Which fine before you realise SM was on our back, but afterwards? You had a fucking connection and you didn’t tell anyone and you admitted you weren’t going to tell anyone. What if it compromised the job? What if it compromised one of us? What if your friend accidentally compromises you on this job which is going to be the riskiest thing we’ve ever done; we don’t need any unknown variables that we can prevent.”

Woohyun is staring at him in shock, and Sungyeol knows he’s ranting now but he is so livid, “Myungsoo is going in there. If we’re compromised, it’s not you that’s going to suffer the consequences it’s him. How do you think Hoya would take that? Think he’s going to have the patience for your bullshit when that happens? Do you think-”

“Sungyeol,” Woohyun says quietly, so much quieter than Sungyeol has ever heard him, “Please stop.”

Sungyeol hadn’t realised he’d gotten up off the bed until that point. Hadn’t realised he was standing over Woohyun in a way that’s probably coming across really aggressive. Sungyeol feels himself flood with shame.

“I’m sorry,” Sungyeol says, sitting back down because he is. Nothing he’d said wasn’t the truth, but the way he’d said it made him a right fucking asshole, “I didn’t mean to do that.” 

“But you meant what you said,” Woohyun says. Obviously. Sungyeol is a lot of things but he always says what he means.

“Yes,” he nods, “Though I probably could have said that in a nicer way.”

“You think,” Woohyun says dryly, shields back up. There’s not nearly as much effort put into the sarcasm as usual.

“Look, I was pissed at you, I still am pissed at you, that doesn’t mean I despise you, people are allowed to be angry at each other.” Sungyeol says. SM brings that out in all of them apparently, divides the team. Even Myungsoo and Hoya went that entire week without speaking to each other which was the weirdest time in Sungyeol’s life, “That doesn’t mean I don’t trust you to do your job, or I think you’re going to bail on us.” 

“Okay,” Woohyun nods his head, “That’s all I can ask for.”

He doesn’t seem that apologetic, Sungyeol realises, maybe that’s what has pissed him off the most all along. That Woohyun doesn’t regret not telling them.

Sungyeol thinks he should probably say something else there, something to reassure Woohyun or let him know that this won’t affect the team, he won’t let it. Let Woohyun knows he doesn’t need to try to prove himself or his loyalty. He doesn’t though, just watches impassively as Woohyun leaves.

When everything is said and done, it’s his biggest regret of the job.

 

 

♖♖♖

 

 

“Have you gotten in contact with your family?” Sunggyu asks Dongwoo as they’re packing up their bedroom. 

Ostensibly everyone is meant to be packing up their things so they can all be out of here by tonight but Dongwoo gets the feeling not everyone is being particularly productive.

“No,” Dongwoo says, back turned to Sunggyu, hoping he gets the hint and drops the subject.

“Dongwoo,” Sunggyu says with a sigh, “We’re going to be in Seoul, in the same country as your family.”

“It doesn’t mean anything. It makes no difference if I’m in the same country or half way around the world, I can’t see them.” Dongwoo says. He doesn’t know why Sunggyu is trying to have this conversation with him when he of all people knows exactly how hard this is.

“I know that Dongwoo, that’s not what I meant.” Sunggyu says with a gentleness to his voice that usually spells bad things for Dongwoo. Last time he heard it, really heard it, was the Be Mine Job. The time before that was when Sunggyu was talking Dongwoo into this crazy scheme of his.

“What do you mean,” Dongwoo asks, putting down the clothes hangers in his hands and turning to face Sunggyu.

The solemn look on his face doesn’t bode well for Dongwoo.

“Have you spoken to Ailee?” Sunggyu asks, not answering Dongwoo’s question and instead bringing up even more painful things.

“Not in years,” Dongwoo says stiffly. That’s not entirely true, but as far as Sunggyu is concerned it might as well be. 

“I did,” Sunggyu says conversationally. Dongwoo double takes. 

“When?” Dongwoo demands, sitting down on his bed, “Why?”

“About a week ago,” Sunggyu says as if it’s not a big deal. It is though, it’s a really fucking big deal. Dongwoo had no idea that Sunggyu was still in contact with Ailee, he’d never so much as mentioned it before. 

“Why?” Dongwoo repeats again. Trying not to think too hard about any of this for fear of bringing uncomfortable realities back to the surface.

“I suggested, that maybe she wanted to take your family for a vacation,” Sunggyu says carefully. Dongwoo stares at him for a few seconds before his words sink in. Then he gets it. He gets it and he feels so so stupid.

“Because they know who we are and we’re going to their home ground and my family are easy targets.” Dongwoo spells out, sounding almost as horrified as he feels. He hadn't even thought of it.

“Hey,” Sunggyu says gently, getting up so he can come and sit next to Dongwoo, “We have no proof they know about your family, but I thought better safe than sorry.”

“I should have been the one thinking that,” Dongwoo says to himself more than Sunggyu. What kind of world is it where Sunggyu is looking out for his family because he’s too fucking stupid to think about it.

“You would have,” Sunggyu reassures him. Empty words because Dongwoo hadn’t even considered the danger to his family, had been too caught up on the fact he’d be near them without getting to see them. That makes him selfish. 

“Where is she taking them?” Dongwoo asks. Maybe it’s better if he doesn’t know but he has to know.

“Japan,” Sunggyu says, giving Dongwoo enough details to satisfy his curiosity but not enough to be any sort of risk. Sunggyu has always, always been the smart one. 

“That’s still SM’s circle of influence,” Dongwoo says with a frown. He feels shitty for criticising Sunggyu’s efforts when they’d clearly been more of an effort than his own, but now he’s thought of it he can’t stop.

“Less of an influence than Seoul, it’s more about making them less easily accessible,” Sunggyu says, wrapping an arm around Dongwoo’s shoulder. Dongwoo doesn’t hesitate to rest his head on Sunggyu’s shoulder feeling exhausted all of a sudden, “Plus a sudden trip to Tokyo is explainable, Ailee suddenly wanting to take them all to America or Australia would probably raise questions in your family we don’t really want to answer.”

“True,” Dongwoo says nodding.

There’s silence for a while before Dongwoo finally brings himself to ask, “How was she.”

“She sounded good,” Sunggyu says, which makes Dongwoo relax just slightly, “She misses you though. They all do, despite everything.” 

“I miss them too,” Dongwoo admits, though it’s not anything of a secret. “I miss them so much.”

Sunggyu hums, wrapping him in a proper hug.

It’s not his family, but it’ll have to do. It has to be enough.

 

 

 

♟♟♟

  

 

“Howon,” Myungsoo asks as they pack up their bedroom. They’ve been doing it side by side in silence for a couple of hours and are nearly finished, so Myungsoo figures now is probably the time to speak up, (it’s a routine so practiced by now they don’t nearly need that long but they’re both stalling for whatever reason).

“Yeah Soo, what’s up?” Howon asks, not looking away from his task of carefully packing the few photo frames they have between them into the box they store them in when traveling - they’re the only things that have made every move with them, at least the earliest photos are.

“Do you think this is the right thing to do?” Myungsoo asks, sitting down on the now bare mattress, the sheets having already been packed away.

Howon carefully puts the last photo away before turning to look at Myungsoo, “Do I think it’s the right thing to do?” He repeats carefully, “what the plan against SM?”

“No the Macarena,” Myungsoo says before shaking his head, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

“Myungsoo,” Howon says coming to sit next to him on the bed but not actually touching him, since he knows what Myungsoo is trying to do, “You know what I think.”

“I know what you told the others,” Myungsoo crosses his arms over his chest, Howon should know better than trying that on him, “I want to know what Howon thinks not what Hoya thinks.”

“You know Hoya and Howon are basically the same person at this point right?” Hoya asks him. 

Myungsoo shakes his head because they’re not he knows they’re not, Howon just can’t see that because Howon is really, truly blind when it comes to himself, “Answer me please.”

“I think there’s a lot more risk involved than what Sunggyu is saying, I don’t know if he sees that and he’s doing his weird salesman pitch thing, he’s ignoring it, or he really has underestimated SM.” Howon says rubbing the heel of his left hand into the palm of his right, “But he’s right we need to do something, and I have nothing better to offer.”

“I’m sure you do,” Myungsoo says with a little pout, “I’m sure you have a plan that’s probably quicker and simpler and ends up with you dead or maimed or disfigured or something.”

“Well yeah but I made a promise to you remember? So I really do have nothing better to offer.” Howon’s words are matter of fact but they make Myungsoo feel glowy.

“I’m scared,” Myungsoo admits. SM terrifies him, he’s never had any dealings with them outside of the team, but he’s had dealings with bad people wanting to kill him for ignoring their power before and it was the worst time of his life (it lead to the best time of his life, but he’d still rather not repeat it).

“You have every right to be scared,” Howon reassures him reaching out for his hand now. Everyone says that Myungsoo is the clingy one, but sometimes he’d like to show them all that Howon gives him a run for his money (but he doesn’t because that’s not their business), “I’m pretty terrified too, but overconfidence can kill you faster than a bullet any day. Fear's good.”

“Why are you scared?” Myungsoo asks.

“Because SM are powerful motherfuckers, because this plan has more variables than Sunggyu’s plans usually do,” Howon says before he gets even more serious, “Because you’re going right into the heart of their operation and that makes me worry for you.”

That’s not the most reassuring thing, Myungsoo was scared enough as it was, but he likes when Howon is honest with him, and shows he cares, “Don’t worry about me, worry about yourself.”

“Myungsoo,” Howon says with a little laugh now, not a proper laugh but still a genuine laugh, “I have been worrying about you as long as I’ve known you, that’s never going to stop." 

“I worry about you too,” Petulantly, because he does. Howon is the one whose value to the team is tied to how well he fights with people. 

“Of course you do,” Howon says, “But I’m not the one constantly in the middle of danger,” Myungsoo would beg to differ, “And you can hold your own but I’m a little bit more trained than you,”

“You’re also more likely to stand and fight than run away,” Myungsoo pouts, reaching out for Howon because the serious part of this conversation is now done, “Or you know chasing me into the middle of danger.”

“Okay, next time you’re kidnapped I’ll leave you to escape yourself then, how’s that sound?” Howon asks teasingly as he opens himself up for Myungsoo to curl into his side.

“I’ll probably get out quicker than if I was waiting for you anyway.” Myungsoo says, wondering how they managed to get distracted by hypotheticals again (he doesn’t wonder because it always happens but it’s still amazing).

“Alright, show me next time,” Howon says teasingly. Myungsoo has no response to that so he doesn’t feel the need to say anything, instead resting his head on Howon’s shoulder and letting the silence fill the room. They can just sit here for a while right? The room doesn’t actually need to be packed up right this second, and SM can wait. 

“Hey Howon,” Myungsoo eventually asks, because the question has just popped into his head again and he really needs to know, “What does SM actually stand for?”

Howon barks a laugh, clearly surprised by his question, “What do you think it stands for Soo?”

“Soulless Monster.” Myungsoo answers straight away, he’s given it a lot of thought over the past couple of months and come to the conclusion that whilst there are many options that could fit, this is the most accurate.

Howon is laughing properly then, the full bodied, teeth flashing, curled in on himself laughter that’s not rare but not as common as Myungsoo would like. If Myungsoo had his way Howon would be laughing like that all the time. 

Once Howon has calmed down, he reaches out and cups Myungsoo’s face, swiping his thumb gently along Myungsoo’s cheek bone. Myungsoo tries not to shiver, “Hey Kim Myungsoo,” Howon whispers.

“Yeah,” Myungsoo whispers back afraid to talk to loud and break the spell of the moment.

“Don’t ever change.”

 

 

♙♙♙

 

 

Woohyun is always amazed by the speed in which Sunggyu puts his plans into motion but this, this has to be the fastest they've gone. Barely ten days after briefing the team on the plan here they are in Seoul, Myungsoo about to go in for his first day undercover.

Woohyun wants to know how he ended up with potentially the worst job of this entire plan. Not the most dangerous (that goes to Myungsoo or surprisingly enough Sunggyu this time) but the most mind numbingly boring job for sure. Especially when you throw in a bored Hoya.

“Are you not done yet?” Hoya asks, flipping an honest to god shuriken between his fingers. He’d come straight to their new base of operations from the airport so Woohyun has no idea where it came from. He doesn’t want to know, instead he’s just grateful he’s not playing with a knife or a gun this time (it’s a nervous habit which is the only reason Woohyun doesn’t comment on it). 

“It’s been half an hour,” Woohyun huffs in annoyance looking at the tangle of computers and wires and other devices he doesn’t even know the name of on the table. Sungyeol had sent him a photo of exactly how he wanted it set up, and sworn a lot about not letting Hoya near his technology he didn’t want it smashed to pieces, but Woohyun still can’t really make heads or tails of it.

“Sungyeol would have done it in five,” Hoya says, kicking his feet up onto the wooden table he’s sitting at.

“Sungyeol isn’t here though,” Woohyun says as reasonably as possible knowing Hoya is just worried about Myungsoo, “So unless you’d like to help please shut up with the criticism.”

“I’d love to help,” Hoya says, clearly lying through his teeth, “But Sungyeol has banned me from doing it, so you’re on your own. Don’t wanna upset the boss.”

“Well then shut up,” Woohyun grits through his teeth.

To his credit, Hoya actually does shut up then, instead choosing to compulsively clean his new toy whilst Woohyun painstakingly puts everything together.

“Do you think this looks right?” Woohyun asks Hoya eventually, surveying his handiwork. 

“I don’t know,” Hoya glances up with a shrug, “It all just looks like screens and cords to me,”

“Useless, why are you even here?” Woohyun mutters under his breath but still loud enough for Hoya to hear him. 

“To babysit you, because Sunggyu wants to maintain his advantage of having SM not know my face, because I enjoy pestering you,” Hoya lists off on the points of his shuriken. “Take your pick.”

“If SM doesn’t know your face why is Myungsoo undercover within SM not you?” Woohyun stands up straight, looking at Hoya. He hadn’t thought of that before, hadn’t really put the two pieces together but now he has it makes a lot more sense than the current plan - if Sunggyu has told them all the whole plan. 

“Fucked if I know,” Hoya shrugs, the way he’s frowning indicating it wasn’t something that had slipped his mind. “I’d say ask Sunggyu but he’d probably give you the same bullshit answer he gave me about preserving the advantage.” 

“Huh,” Woohyun says, not wanting to touch that can of worms with a twelve-foot pole. Instead he plugs the last cord in with a flourish and waits for something to happen.

Nothing does. 

Hoya starts laughing at him, “Was that meant to do something?”

“Fuck off,” Woohyun flips Hoya off over his shoulder, wondering what he’s doing wrong. Readjusting a few cords he gets a glaring red ERROR message across all four screens. What the fuck.

“Oh man maybe it was you Sungyeol should have been worried about fucking his equipment beyond repair, not me.” Hoya continues to laugh. It’s not even that funny but Woohyun stopped trying to figure out Hoya’s sense of humour a long time ago.

“I think you being in the room cursed it,” Woohyun says. He’s joking except not really because Sungyeol is already hostile enough to him at the moment, last thing he needs is adding fucking up his computer to that list.

“Shit,” Woohyun groans, seriously considering dropping off the face of the planet so he never has to speak to Sungyeol ever again. It’s not an over-exaggeration, Sungyeol’s ire genuinely frightens him more than anyone except Hoya’s, “Sungyeol is going to murder me and sell my organs on Ebay, or Craigslist.” 

“You’re being dramatic.” Hoya continues to laugh at him. Woohyun lets out a melodramatic whine of protest (something he would never have done before and clearly a habit he picked up from someone in this team). Hoya sighs, and takes pity on him, “Did you try scanning for other channels on the router,” Hoya suggests. 

That’s, a logical suggestion Woohyun thinks, doing as Hoya suggests and more surprised than he should be when it works, the computers all blaring to life at the same moment.

“How did you know that?” Woohyun asks suspiciously. 

Hoya shrugs. Woohyun has no idea if he guessed, was in on some sort of prank with Sungyeol (though it’s more understated than Sungyeol’s usual methods), or has been fooling them all along and is secretly a computer genius on top of every other fucking skill he has.

If he is, he really could run this team entirely on his own.

“Well, that’s done at least,” Woohyun sighs, pulling out the chair opposite Hoya’s and sitting down, knocking Hoya’s feet off the table in the process.

“Sungyeol is going to hate it,” Hoya says gleefully.

“Why? It’s all working,” Woohyun says, more offended than he should be. He tried his best, and everything is working so Sungyeol can suck a dick. If he wanted it done right, he could have been here himself.

“Yeah but Sungyeol has a very particular way of laying it all out,” Hoya says. It’s inane conversation, Hoya’s attempt at the small talk he never really partakes in perhaps.

“How’s Myungsoo going?” Woohyun asks abruptly, putting an end to the awkward conversation and starting a new one. One he’s actually interested in.

“I don’t know,” Hoya says in a strained voice.

Woohyun doesn’t know how Hoya could possibly not know, he’d assumed he would have had comms units in, gotten Sungyeol to hack cameras, anything and everything technologically possible in order to keep an eye on him. “The building is set up so only specific comms channels can go in and out, don’t ask me how it works I don’t understand,” Hoya says. Woohyun wasn’t going to ask him, he was making a note to ask Sungyeol later, “That’s why Sungyeol is there and not here, Sunggyu deemed getting our channel through SM was more important than the positioning of Sungyeol’s monitors on the desk.”

That makes sense to Woohyun, maybe he’d have bitched less if someone had told him what was happening (probably not but he’d have been less resentful in general). It also explains why Hoya has been more on edge than usual for the moment, not only is Myungsoo deep within SM’s territory he’s doing it without comms.

Woohyun debates whether asking Hoya his next question is going to result in snark, but then deciding his curiosity is too much he asks anyway, “Why not wait to send Myungsoo in till we had comms?”

Hoya drops his head onto the table, “Sungyeol needed someone on the inside to get it set up apparently. Their security is no joke." 

“Sungyeol needed help?” Woohyun can’t help asking surprised. Maybe he’s been listening to Sungyeol hyping himself for too long but he’s always been under the impression Sungyeol could hack pretty much anyone or anything.

“Yes.” Hoya says.

“Why?” Woohyun asks, impatient for an explanation.

“SM recruited him, they’ve seen what he can do.” Hoya explains. 

“He’s gotten a lot better since then though,” Woohyun frowns. If anything that Kibum told him is correct, Sungyeol has been deemed the biggest individual threat against SM. The fact they hadn’t tried to neutralise him earlier is the most surprising thing.

“Yeah,” Hoya says, “But if I understand what he was trying to explain to me and Myungsoo the other day, his skills have improved but his approach never really has,” Hoya explains clumsily.

“Oh, so SM has guarded against the type of attack they think he’d go for specifically,” Woohyun nods, following along, “knowing the way he thinks.”

“Exactly, so he can still do it but he’s got to completely change the way he looks at the problem, which takes time and effort.”

“Poor Sungyeol,” Woohyun says sarcastically. He’s not exactly sure why he said that, hadn’t really thought about it.

 Hoya shoots him a knowing look, “Like you could do better,”

“Please, like what Sungyeol does is that hard.” Woohyun says, still slightly resentful.

Which is of course the point that said person returns, “says the glorified liar,” Sungyeol drawls as a blur pushes past him in the door and throws themselves at Hoya. Of course it’s Myungsoo.

Woohyun hadn’t even realised how much tension Hoya had been holding in his body until it all leeches out at Myungsoo appearances, apparently safe and well.

“Are you going to let him talk about what you do that way Myungsoo?” Woohyun asks pointedly. Sungyeol sneers in his direction, but it serves him right.

Myungsoo shrugs, “Acting, lying, grifting it’s all the same thing,” he says as he settles himself in Hoya’s lap comfortably. Woohyun has no idea how they both fit on that rickety old chair without it collapsing but he doesn’t question it.

“Plus, Myungsoo’s the one that takes the real risks anyway,” Sungyeol says with a scoff. 

Woohyun sputters at that. Sure Myungsoo might have the riskiest role for this job, no one is disputing that (Woohyun sure as fuck isn’t - he doesn’t want Hoya knocking him out), but“Enough,” Sunggyu sighs from his position behind Sungyeol. Woohyun had been so focused on Sungyeol he hadn’t even noticed him, “Can we wait to tear each other limb from limb until after we’ve done it to SM.”

“Gladly,” Sungyeol says in a way that’s really quite sinister if Woohyun’s being honest, “Gives me more time to think of the most painful way of doing it.”

Woohyun takes a great deal of satisfaction in the way Sunggyu slaps Sungyeol across the back of the head. It’s gentle but it’s still a reprimand. 

Woohyun turns to Myungsoo to make a comment about it only to find both Hoya and Myungsoo are lost in their own world. From the sound of the murmured words that Woohyun can make out Myungsoo is telling Hoya about his day. Which is gross and domestic and something Woohyun doesn’t want to overhear.

Whining about his head, Sungyeol walks further into the room, probably to criticise Woohyun’s computer work - which he wasn’t even supposed to be doing. Honestly Woohyun did a better job at computers than Sungyeol did at grifting.

Sungyeol clearly doesn’t think so because he takes one look at the set-up of computers and turns to Sunggyu, “Please, please can I get someone in to help me. If we’re relying on Woohyun’s tech skills we might as well just give in to SM.”

“Everything looks like it’s working to me,” Sunggyu says critically (Woohyun cheers him on in his head), “But did you have someone in mind?' 

“Well,” Sungyeol says with a little grin, “I know this girl.” 

Woohyun sighs.

 

 

♟♟♟

 

Myungsoo would really, really like to know how he ended up as the person that has to infiltrate SM. Sure he’s complained before that he’s always the patsy, or the bait, but he’d take that role any day of the week. He’d do it every day for a year’s worth of weeks if it means he doesn’t have to sit in the middle of one of SM’s buildings, pretending to be one of their mindless robots.

It’s not a high level building, none of their ‘important teams’ have been seen here in the time they’ve been watching (which is why Sunggyu felt confident enough to send Myungsoo in) but it’s still closer than he’d like. There’s still the chance SM is so wary of them that they’ve circulated their photos to everyone that works for them, even the analysts and hackers that work here.

Sunggyu says they won’t though, don’t want to tell their new recruits that they’ve got a problem that’s gone unsolved or that a rag tag bunch of seven is causing them trouble. It’s logic Myungsoo can follow, but isn’t sure is completely accurate.

Myungsoo trusts Sunggyu though, trust Howon more and they both think he can do this, so he’s determined to prove them right. 

Myungsoo is knocked out of his thoughts by a heavy hand on his shoulder. Looking up with the ever present fear he’s about to be discovered and murdered (or even worse the idea they already know he’s here and are just toying with him) he’s relieved to see it’s Seulgi, the girl whose cubicle is next to his.

“What’s up Daehyun?” she asks him with a smile that shows she’s teasing (he hopes) as she leans against the desk next to him, “you look terrified.”

“Do I?” He asks, even though if he looks half as terrified as he feels it’s pretty fucking obvious, “This is just my face though.”

“I guess you just have a terrified face then,” she laughs, “Or,” she turns serious here, “You’re just constantly terrified.”

“This place is terrifying,” Myungsoo admits without thinking about it. Hopefully he can pass it off as a joke.

“You get used to it,” Seulgi admits with a shrug before lowering her voice in a conspiratorial whisper, “Did you hear? They’re talking about putting together this rookie team for doing like actual jobs on a low level. Isn’t that exciting?” 

“Yeah,” Myungsoo says because that’s the reaction that’s expected of him. He’s not particularly excited about the idea of another SM team running around, especially one full of young kids eager to prove themselves.

“You’re new Daehyun but your hacking skills are unprecedented,” Seulgi compliments him (he can hear Sungyeol laughing through his comms unit, wheezing out about how she clearly has no experience with hacking), “Maybe you’ll make the team.”

“Oh I’m probably too new for that,” He waves away, wishing this conversation could stop so that he could get back to the task at hand. He’s not sure why Seulgi has decided today, the day he’s supposed to steal the information, is the day for a gossip but he’d really rather not. 

“Talent outweighs everything else,” Seulgi tells him knowingly, “Look at Baekhyun, he was here two seconds before he ended up in M-K.”

“There’s a bit of a difference between an assassin and a hacker,” Myungsoo says trying not to laugh nervously. He’s heard many things about Byun Baekhyun, things that make the stories he’s heard from Howon about his past sound cheerful, and that’s one person he never, ever wants to meet.

“Well, just keep up the good work and I’m sure someone will notice,” Seulgi pats him on the shoulder once more before finally, thankfully leaving him alone.

“Maybe, you should tone down your competence,” Sunggyu says over the comms once Myungsoo is essentially alone again.

Myungsoo looks around surreptitiously to make sure that no one is paying any attention to him and then hisses “Sungyeol’s the one that’s been doing everything, have a word with him.”

“Excuse me, this is me toning down my competence. This is the most incompetent I am willing to go,” Sungyeol sounds so indignant that Myungsoo would laugh, if he wasn’t terrified that doing so would blow his cover. 

“Guys, let Myungsoo focus please,” That’s Howon’s steady voice. Howon is always a steadying and calm influence, he doesn’t know what he’d do without him.

“Thank you,” Myungsoo says. The words are barely out of his mouth when suddenly his supervisor is in front of him. 

“Daehyun,” Mr Kim (because analysts and recruits aren’t allowed to know their real names), “You’re wanted in the control room.” 

“Me sir?” Myungsoo says with a wide-eyed innocence he’s not feeling. It’s good though, it’s excellent, it’s luck going his way for the first time this job. It means he doesn’t have to find an excuse to get in there, or worse, attempt to sneak in unnoticed. Instead they’re essentially handing him a free pass to the information he needs to steal.

“Yes you. Though god knows why.” Mr Kim scoffs. Myungsoo gets the feeling he doesn’t like him, but that’s probably because Myungsoo was an unwanted addition to his team, but that’s hardly his fault.

When Myungsoo doesn’t make to move Mr Kim rolls his eyes, “Go now before I throw you out the window instead.”

Myungsoo nods, grabbing his things (and making sure he has the USB Sungyeol specifically gave him for this purpose in his pocket) before scurrying away. He hears Mr Kim muttering in the background about how spineless he is and it’s a shame he’s so good as he goes. He kind of sounds like Woohyun.

“So,” Sungyeol says as Myungsoo heads down the hallway to the control room, head down so no one looks at him, “Remind me never to complain about Sunggyu’s style of leadership ever again.” 

“As if you’re going to stop complaining,” Sunggyu says with a scoff. Myungsoo agrees, “I think it’s essentially your sustenance.”

“Guys,” Hoya reminds them with a sigh, “Please.”

It’s kind of funny, Myungsoo thinks, how quickly Sunggyu forgets he’s on comms when he’s not out in the field, but he’s always the first one to ask for quiet when he is in the field. Myungsoo doesn’t mind most of the time, over the past three years he’s gotten used to the constant chatting to the point it’s almost reassuring, but not right now when he’s attempting the most dangerous thing he’s ever done.

Except perhaps that time he faked his death, but Howon essentially held his hand through that entire process. Just like he’s got his back right now.

“Sorry,” Sungyeol says, not sounding particularly apologetic, but the fact he even says it and stops talking means he probably is.

“It’s okay,” Myungsoo whispers, even as he’s knocking on the heavy door to the control room. He’s new, so he doesn’t know the password, but being let in is so much easier than the crawling through the vents or something he’d have had to do otherwise.

The door swings open and Myungsoo’s admitted, glancing over his shoulder as he enters the room his heart almost stops. Swinging his face back around so it’s hopefully not seen he follows the guard into the room trying not to panic.

Except he’s sure he just saw one of the SM goons, actual active ‘operatives’ (he has no idea why SM uses words and phrases like they’re some sort of government intelligence agency - maybe someone has a sense of humour) that had crashed the 60 Seconds job that one time.

Thankfully the person had been rounding a corner, not looking at him, and probably didn’t see him, judging by the way he’s not been shot, or chained up yet. Still Myungsoo really hopes it’s his over active imagination playing tricks on him and nothing more. 

“Daehyun,” The head of operations, Mr. Im, says when Myungsoo has been let in, “Good, you’re here.” 

“Just doing what I’m told sir.” Myungsoo says, because obviously he’s here.

“Good, good,” Mr Im says, physically leading him by the shoulder to an empty work station. It’s at the back of the room, but unfortunately not the last row of computers, that would have been way too convenient and definitely a trap, “One of our senior hackers was tied up,” Myungsoo really hopes that’s just an expression and not a punishment, “and it’s a bit unprecedented to get someone so new in here but you seem trustworthy,” ‘you seem obedient and meek therefore easier to push around’ Myungsoo’s brain translates helpfully, “and skilled so, here we are.”

“Here we are.” Myungsoo agrees, wondering what it is they actually want him to do.

“Haha, now who should tone down their hacking,” Myungsoo can hear Sungyeol gloating to Sunggyu in the background, “My over achieving ass just made Myungsoo jobs twenty times easier. I don’t get enough appreciation around here.”

He’s right, he doesn’t, but Myungsoo isn’t exactly in the position to be appreciating him right now. At least not in a way Sungyeol can hear. 

It takes Mr Im over an hour to explain to Myungsoo something that he already knows - it had taken Sungyeol ten minutes to explain it to him a couple of days ago - but then he’s finally left alone with the dozen other worker drones in the room, with access to all the files on SMs main system. He coughs twice.

“Okay,” Sungyeol says, suddenly all business mode, “I take it you’re in. All you need to do is plug that USB I gave you into the computer.” Sungyeol instructs, “Open the thumb drive file on the desktop and click on the copy program first, then the eye, just like I told you the other day. The screen will flash up a copying files screen when you click the copy program but as soon as you click the eye it’ll disappear from the screen so be quick.”

“Right,” Myungsoo mutters to himself under his breath, taking a few seconds to psych himself up before clicking the two icons in quick succession. There’s an awful three seconds whilst the copying files screen is there, but glancing around the room everyone is so focused on their own screens no one seems to have noticed him. Not very observant, these SM goons.

“Okay, it’s in,” Sungyeol says, sounding excited. He probably hasn’t tried this software before, Myungsoo is a glorified test run, “It’ll copy everything we should need across, just give it like twenty minutes.”

“Should copy everything we need?” Sunggyu questions, not reassuring.

“Should is the best I can do with a fucking computer program, it’s not an actual human brain and unless you want Myungsoo to spend hours sifting through the files and hope no one notices him going through files he shouldn’t be going through it’s the best we’ve got.” Sungyeol says defensively. 

Myungsoo would smile at Sungyeol standing up for him (in his own weird way) if he wasn’t so fucking terrified. He doesn’t know how he’s going to survive twenty minutes with the stark white USB plugged into the black computer on the black table without anyone noticing it. 

Thankfully, somehow, he does and when twenty minutes is up the light on the USB flashes to let him know it’s done. He pockets the USB and looks around, surprised that no one has paid him any attention. SM should really get some more observant recruits, but he’s thankful they don’t. 

He spends the next three hours, letting Sungyeol talk him through the programming work he’s actually meant to be doing and it’s nice, calming. Almost like any other day of Sungyeol teaching him his hacking skills except he’s unable to respond to the lame jokes. Also, there’s the overhanging threat that Myungsoo is about to be discovered and disemboweled. 

Eventually though he’s relieved of his ‘shift’ by someone else, an orange haired girl he’s never seen before. He cannot get out of there fast enough, he heads back for his cubicle to grab his things so he can leave. His head is down, because he’s on a mission, except that’s a terrible idea because he walks straight into someone.

Looking up at them, apology on his tongue, his blood runs cold. Fucking shit. It’s that one goon he noticed on his way into the operation room, the one that crashed the 60 Seconds job. He’d seen the guy on the job so there’s no way he doesn’t recognise Myungsoo. This is it, the way Myungsoo dies, skinned alive to bleed out in excruciating pain. He hopes Howon avenges his death.

Except the guy doesn’t seem to recognise Myungsoo at all, instead he reaches up (because he’s even shorter than Dongwoo) to clap his shoulder, “Okay there kid? What’s your name?”

“Daehyun,” Myungsoo introduces himself, wondering if this is some kind of sick twisted game. Let him think he’s safe, let him go and then shoot him through the kidney as he walks away. 

“Jonghyuk,” the guy introduces himself. Myungsoo gulps. 

“Where are you off to in such a rush,” the guy asks, somehow managing to guide Myungsoo in the direction he was going despite being shorter than him.

“Myungsoo,” Howon’s low serious voice comes down the comms, “Can you shake him? Get away.”

“No rush,” Myungsoo says with a little shrug, knowing Howon will understand.

Howon swears.

“Could have fooled me.”Jonghyuk says, before engaging Myungsoo in the most small talk he’s had to make as his alias. He asks him all about himself, his skills, his aspirations, why he’s here, maybe trying to spot a mistake in his story. He won’t find one though because this is where Myungsoo excels, maybe not as much as Woohyun but enough to subvert the pretty obvious attempt to trip him up. Or maybe it is just small talk, though that seems unlikely.

Eventually, to Myungsoo surprise, they end up back at his destination, the general work cubicle area. Uncomfortably enough, all of the eyes in the area are on them. “Well, try not to get too lost next time, huh Daehyun?” Jonghyuk asks him in a way that seems menacing, though that might be Myungsoo reading too far into it, “I might not be there to help you out next time.”

“Yes sir, thank you.” Myungsoo says with a bow of his head.

“Not a sir,” Jonghyuk laughs, throwing over his shoulder before he goes.

Myungsoo can hear Howon and Sungyeol letting out sighs of relief on the other end of the comms, though Myungsoo won’t be breathing easier until he gets out of here. He makes a beeline for his desk, collects his stuff that he wasn’t allowed in the control room, and is almost home free when he’s cornered in the lobby. By Seulgi again.

“What the fuck was that about?” She asks him crowding him into the wall. He can see the outside, he’s so close yet so far.

“What was what about?” Myungsoo asks, feigning confusion.

“How did you get Kim Jonghyun to talk to you?” Seulgi asks, jealousy evident in her voice, “How did you even get him over here, he’s never over here.”

“Who was that?” Myungsoo asks.

“Kim Jonghyun?” Seulgi says, sounding completely appalled he doesn’t know, “Only the most multitalented member of Lee Jinki’s team, oh my god how do you not know this stuff.”

Lee Jinki’s team. There they are again, always cropping up unexpectedly, Myungsoo thinks. He doesn’t examine it too much though, that’s something for everyone to interrogate Woohyun over later.

Instead he manages to shake Seulgi and get out of there. Now his mission is complete he hopefully never has to return to the soul crushing factory of psychopath SM goons ever again.


	13. Interlude: In violent times, you shouldn’t have to sell your soul

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More action in this one, we're finally getting to some substantial plot, only took me 22,000 words. *sighs*
> 
> My beta has had a super busy week on hospital placements so I'm the only one that's edited this - that's why the quality is noticeably worse than usual. This chapter was meant to be longer but I switched a scene to next week because I'd like my beta to look over it if she can because it's a #mess. Which means fair warning at the moment next weeks chapter is 12,600 words. (Though TBH with that scene this chapter would have been almost that long so six and two threes i guess)
> 
> I hope everyone stays safe <3

**Interlude: In violent times, you shouldn’t have to sell your soul**

**o2.**

☆★☆

 

 _I tremble_  
_They're gonna eat me alive_  
_If I stumble_  
_They're gonna eat me alive_  
_Can you hear my heart  
_ _Beating like a hammer_

 

♔♚♔

 

Sunggyu is pretty sure he doesn’t breathe for the entire six hour period that Myungsoo is in SM getting the information for them, he can only imagine Hoya and Sungyeol are more nervous, never mind Myungsoo himself.

It’s only once Myungsoo whispers a, “I’m on my way back, just making sure I have no tail,” through the comms that Sunggyu allows himself to relax.

And consider the implications of everything that happened.

“Why the fuck is Kim Jonghyun helping Myungsoo out?” Sungyeol asks, as soon as they know that Myungsoo is safe.

Sungyeol looks between Hoya and Sunggyu, the only two currently at their base, as if they will have the answers. Sunggyu has no fucking clue.

“Do you think Woohyun knows? Do you think he’s keeping more things from us?” Sungyeol asks suspiciously. As always he has perfect timing, choosing the exact moment Woohyun walks into the room behind him to say it. Sunggyu understands why Sungyeol is upset at Woohyun, but the constant snarky comment both to his face and behind his back are doing nothing to help team unity.

“I don’t think so,” Hoya says with a shake of his head.

“What am I being accused of doing this time?” Sunggyu doesn’t like how _weary_ Woohyun sounds. He’ll have to have a word with him, or even better stick Dongwoo on him since he’s much better at this kind of thing than Sunggyu himself.

“Kim Jonghyun,” Sungyeol says with a glower.

“Doing what with Kim Jonghyun? _Doing_ him? Because I can assure you I’ve never actually met the guy before in my life,” Woohyun says, dropping his bag on the couch and coming over to where they’re all sitting at the table.

“He saw Myungsoo today,” Hoya answers quietly. Woohyun swears, “He saw him and he didn’t _say_ anything even though we all know it was him that ran interference on Myungsoo during the Jensen Job so he had to know who he was.”

“I don’t understand,” Woohyun says, looking genuinely confused.

“That makes all of us,” Sunggyu says with a sigh. This is another complication he doesn’t need, though not an entirely unwanted one. He doesn’t know why another member of Jinki’s team is helping them, or at least not turning them in. Kibum he understands, now that he knows about Woohyun’s history, but the other members of this team have no reason to help.

“Maybe they’re as sick of SM as we are?” Sungyeol suggests, though he doesn’t sound particularly convinced.

“If they wanted to stop SM, they’d have been able to do it years ago without our help.” Hoya says quietly.  Uf the stories are even a quarter true about how proficient they are then he has a point.

“Did Jonghyun help Myungsoo or did he just not turn him in?” Woohyun asks curiously.

“Just didn’t turn me in,” Myungsoo says. Sunggyu had completely forgotten he was still on the comms He’s so used to having the thing in his ear these days that it’s not uncommon to forget, he’s gone to bed with them still in more than once, “Or draw and quarter me with a rusty knife.”

“I doubt he’d have drawn and quartered you with a rusty knife, even if he wanted to kill you,” Hoya says reassuringly. Before adding, less reassuringly, “There probably would have been enough torture involved that we could have gotten to you in time.”

“Thank you,” Myungsoo says sarcastically.

“It’s fine, you weren’t kidnapped, it’s okay,” Hoya says softly.

“Yeah,” Myungsoo says, still sounding truly shaken even though he’s presumably safe now.

“I guess we just, don’t question it for now,” Sunggyu says in resignation. Having an unknown variable like this in play is a huge risk that Sunggyu usually wouldn’t be willing to take, but at this point there’s nothing else he can do. He can’t go seeking anyone from that team for answers, and he doesn’t want to waste his team's efforts or focus when this job is risky enough as it is.

“Can we afford to do that?” Woohyun asks.

“We can’t afford to waste time or resources doing anything about it,” Sunggyu says rubbing at the bridge of his nose. He feels a headache coming on. Of course none of this can just be _simple_.

“I guess so,” Woohyun says hesitantly. Sungyeol and Hoya say nothing. Sunggyu has no idea if that’s a good or bad sign.

Before the silence can drag and Woohyun starts nervous babbling they’re interrupted, yet again, though this time it’s the welcome interruption of Sungjong and Dongwoo's return, lugging a metal box between them.

“We got it,” Dongwoo says cheerfully as they place the thing down with a sigh, “Well Sungjong got it,” he says, saluting Sungjong a little.

“As expected,” Hoya drawls. Sungjong flips him off.

Thankfully the tension in the room dissipates as everyone goes off on their own to do the bits and pieces they need to prepare for the next job. Sungyeol is messing around on his computers, Sungjong and Hoya are going through their new supplies, and Woohyun is off in the corner of the room doing whatever it is he does.

Which reminds Sunggyu, “You should probably have a word to Woohyun,” he mutters to Dongwoo under his breath once he’s sure no one is paying any attention to them (remembering to turn his comms off this time).

“About Sungyeol?” Dongwoo says looking as disapproving as Dongwoo ever gets, “only if you tell Sungyeol off.”

“I can’t,” Sunggyu says as much as he wishes he could, “Because he’s really important for this job and I don’t want to upset him or his ego.”

Dongwoo sighs, “You shouldn’t let him get away with this.”

“Any other job I wouldn’t,” Sunggyu says, not that Sungyeol would listen to him, “But this one is too important.”

“It’s too important to let Sungyeol mess it up with his hurt feelings,” Dongwoo says with a disapproving click of his tongue. Sunggyu gets that, but he doesn’t know how to fix it without throwing something else off balance.

“I’ll do something, but can you please talk to Woohyun?” Sunggyu asks. He doesn’t know _what_ he’ll do but now he’s promised Dongwoo it’s going to have to be something.

“Okay, but for Woohyun.” Dongwoo says with a little nod of determination, effectively ending the conversation.

Sunggyu doesn’t mind, instead he bums a laptop off of Sungyeol and starts talking Dongwoo through his next job for the plan.

About an hour after he tells them he’s on his way home Myungsoo finally struts through the door. His walk and smirk is confident but they can all tell it’s a ruse.

Even as he waves the USB in the air triumphantly, his hands are shaking. Sunggyu regrets sending him in there, he really does, but he had no other choice. Sungjong, Dongwoo and himself don’t have the grifting ability to even get close, Sungyeol is way too known, Woohyun is too much of an unknown variable at this point and Sungyeol was insistent no one would buy Hoya as a hacker (Sunggyu wouldn’t have sent him anyway, he has better uses for Hoya’s anonymity in the eyes of SM at this point).

Dongwoo takes the USB from Myungsoo and plugs it into the laptop, drawing the attention of everyone else in the room. When the screen prompts them for a password, Sungyeol sighs pushing Dongwoo gently out of the way and logging in.

Everyone else crowds around the screen, Hoya with an arm wrapped around Myungsoo’s shoulder. Myungsoo’s gripping his other hand so tightly that Hoya's probably lost circulation in his fingers, but at least Myungsoo’s hands aren’t shaking anymore. No one makes a comment on it.

“Wow,” Dongwoo says as screens upon screens of information open up on the screen.

“Do you even know what any of that means?” Hoya asks with a small laugh. It’s not his most genuine laugh but at least he’s making an effort.

“No,” Dongwoo admits shamelessly, “But it looks really impressive and Myungsoo went through a lot of work to get it, so it’s got to be impressive.”

“That is is,” Sungyeol says letting a low whistle out under his breath, “We’ll have to sort through it properly but this has enough information for us to figure out at least a dozen officials that are in SMs pocket.”

Myungsoo sags even further into Hoya’s side in relief. Sunggyu feels a bit guilty that he’s going to have to send Myungsoo back into the office when he probably thinks he’s done undercover.

“Is that,” Hoya says in surprise, leaning forward, “Commissioner-General of Korean National Police Agency?”

“You know I think it is,” Sungyeol agrees, clicking around on a few more things that mean nothing to Sunggyu but seem to confirm it to Sungyeol, “Damn it is.”

“That’s deeper than I thought,” Woohyun admits, hands gripping onto the back of Sunggyu’s chair so hard that his knuckles are brushing against his back. Sunggyu doesn’t comment.

“This is good though,” Sunggyu says with a nod, “Because the more senior we confront them with, the more likely we are to get them to talk.”

“And,” Myungsoo offers, “The more widespread the corruption, the more outraged the public.”

“If the, Deputy Minister for foreign affairs," here Hoya pauses to read something off the screen, "is corrupt it causes a scandal,” Hoya nods, continuing that train of thought, “The Commissioner-General of the police is going to cause a fucking outcry.”

“There’s _a lot_ of information here, we might get even more senior people,” Sungyeol says looking excited at the prospect.

“Well,” Hoya says, clapping Sungyeol on the shoulder, “I hope you’ve caught up on your sleep recently because you’re probably not going to be sleeping for days.”

Sunggyu isn’t sure if it’s one of his terrible jokes or not because the words ring true. For all of them.

 

 

♝♝♝

 

Sungyeol loves hacking, loves sorting through piles and piles of information to find out each and every one of someone’s dirty, sordid secrets.

By his third straight day of sorting through the information that Myungsoo had taken from SM, he never wants to see a financial statement or ledger ever again. He’s slept a grand total of four hours over that time and due to Sungjong’s annoying and totally uncalled for insistence that he limits his coffee intake he’s practically dead on his feet.

“You need to sleep more,” Hoya tells him on the fourth morning, sliding a cup of coffee across the table towards him.

“I need to find this information out for Sunggyu, for all of us,” Sungyeol says defiantly, taking a sip of the coffee. Fuck that’s strong.

“Thank you,” He tells Hoya reverently.

“Yeah, yeah just don’t tell Sungjong,” Hoya waves it away like it’s nothing. That's Hoya’s default reaction to people (that aren’t Myungsoo) noticing his considerations.

“How’d you get it past Sungjong?” Sungyeol wonders out loud, “And why.” Hoya’s dedication to Sungjong is quieter than his dedication to Myungsoo but sometimes Sungyeol thinks it’s even stronger. It’s a very, very rare day Sungyeol has ever seen Hoya disagree with or go against something Sungjong wants.

“Sungjong’s intentions are good but he’s never had to forgo sleep this way before,” Hoya says reasonably, taking the seat next to Sungyeol, “Plus turning your blood into coffee for a couple of days _probably_ won’t fuck your heart or blood pressure or anything beyond repair.”

“Reassuring,” Sungyeol says dryly, rolling a kink out of his neck and making a mental note to grab some anti-inflammatories next time he’s up.

“You really should get some sleep though,” Hoya says, “and not push yourself too hard.” Hypocrite.

“Myungsoo is spending hours upon hours in that hellhole masquerading as an office, with a huge fucking risk hanging over his head. If me not sleeping for a couple of nights so I can do my job from the safest place I could be in Seoul gets him out of there quicker then of course I’m going to do it,” Sungyeol says passionately. Hoya of all people should understand that.

“Myungsoo is definitely doing the most dangerous part of this job, no one can argue there” Hoya agrees casually, though the twist of his mouth indicates what he really thinks about that, “but he gets enough sleep so that he can function at a decent level of ability.”

“I’m sure you make sure of that,” Sungyeol says. It’s meant to come out in a suggestive way but instead it just sounds tired. What he’d give for someone to force him to take care of himself when he’s being stubborn like Myungsoo and Hoya do for each other.

“I’m sure there’s someone out there willing,” Hoya says with a twinkle in his eye, melancholy set of his shoulders still present despite it.

“Thanks for the personal offer,” Sungyeol snarks, “But I’ll pass.”

“I mean, if you want.” Hoya shrugs in a totally casual way. Too casual if you ask Sungyeol.

Sungyeol doesn’t respond because his brain seriously won’t. Hoya sighs, “Okay here is the thing you cannot be doing your best work half asleep like this,” Hoya says.

“I do my best work when sleep deprived,” Sungyeol argues before cringing. Yeah, not one of his better comebacks.

“Science disagrees,” Hoya drawls. Sungyeol wants to punch him in his smug face.

“What would you know about science?” Sungyeol sneers.

“Sungyeol you’re half asleep, you’re almost certainly going to miss something, not because you’re not good but because your brain is not processing things properly.” Hoya’s really going all in on this rant. Sungyeol wonders if this is the kind of treatment Myungsoo gets or if he’s so over the rants he just does what he’s told in order to avoid them, “I bet your neck is killing you, so take some painkillers grab a hot pack and go to bed.”

“I need to do this.” Sungyeol insists. Though it’s weaker now.

Then Hoya goes in for the killshot, “Sungyeol, go to bed or I’ll tell Myungsoo that you’re depriving yourself of sleep out of some misguided attempt to protect him.”

“You wouldn’t,” Sungyeol says in horror.

The look on Hoya’s face as he gets to his feet says otherwise, “I would. And then Myungsoo would get down here and force you to bed himself.” He would, and his righteous rants would be worse than Hoya’s. He wonders who picked that habit up from whom.

“Fine, I’ll have a nap.” Sungyeol says, “But know I’m doing it under extreme protest.”

“At least six hours,” Hoya says like a mother or something. Hoya the mother hen, “And yes no one could miss the protesting, as feeble and lame as it is.”

“Fuck you,” Sungyeol sighs, closing the laptop and getting up. He’s barely standing before his vision goes blurry and he starts to wobble.

Hoya seems to have anticipated this though because a second later he’s got his arm around Hoya’s shoulder leaning his weight on his body. There is a height joke to make here but he's too tired to form the words.

“You are a mess,” Hoya chuckles fondly.

Sungyeol barely hears him, he only has just enough energy to keep on his feet long enough for Hoya to deposit him in a bed that is clearly not his own.

Then he’s out like a light.

 

♘♘♘

 

Sungjong doesn’t know how Hoya managed to get Sungyeol to take a goddamn break for half a second, and he doesn’t really care. All he knows is he’s fucking glad Sungyeol is attempting to look after himself, because for the first time in days Sungyeol isn’t sitting at the table in the common area when Sungjong himself gets up at 6am. Instead, Hoya is the one sitting at the table doing a crossword of all things.

“Where’s Sungyeol?” Sungjong asks, hopeful he’s sleeping but aware he could be on a toilet break or something.

“In my bed,” Hoya says, not looking up from his cross word.

“Sleeping?” Sungjong asks because knowing Sungyeol he’s taken a laptop to work with him in bed.

“Well he was sleeping when I dumped him in there,” Hoya says, “I have no idea what he’s doing now.”

“You're leaving him unattended in your room?” Sungjong asks skeptically as he takes a seat next to Hoya, reading over his shoulder.

“He was so exhausted I’ll be surprised if he’s awake in the next twelve hours,” Hoya says with a role of his eyes. That’s probably not an over exaggeration, “Plus we spend most nights in the apartment of Soo’s cover so there’s not much in there for him to stickybeak through.”

“Why is there a cold cup of coffee on the table?” Sungjong asks suspicious, train of thought completely derailed by the site, “It’s not Sungyeol’s is it?”

“I gave it to Sungyeol,” Hoya says. Stupid enabler, “But he was so out of it that he drank one mouthful before I managed to coax him into bed.” Hoya pauses, “Not in that way. Though I mean I wouldn’t be opposed to the idea.”

Sungjong hits Hoya in the shoulder with the heel of his hand. Hoya just laughs at him

“Someone needs to teach that boy to look out for himself,” Hoya says once he’s stopped laughing.

“Don’t you think I’ve been trying Hyung?” Sungjong says, because he thought it was pretty bloody obvious.

“Try harder then,” Hoya teases him. Sungjong is tempted to hit him again, except he knows Hoya would barely feel it since he’s taken way worse.

“Unusual circumstances,” Sungjong sniffs, because it is. This job has pushed all of them to their limits, especially Sungyeol and Sunggyu who are usually operating at their limits at all times anyway (Hoya as well but Sungjong’s always thought Hoya had no limits and this job is really reinforcing that hypothesis).

“What’s unusual circumstances?” Woohyun asks as he comes into the room, awake earlier in the morning than he usually is.

“Sungyeol sleeping,” Hoya says, which is close enough to what they’re talking about that it’s the truth.

Woohyun squints at Hoya suspiciously, “Did you drug him?”

It says something that Woohyun has gotten to the point he can joke about drugging. Sungjong’s not sure if it means he’s finally come to terms with his experience two years ago or if he’s in a particularly self-deprecating mood right now.

“As if,” Hoya snorts. “He was so dead on his feet he essentially passed out.”

“Poor thing,” Woohyun clicks his tongue, making his way into the kitchen. That’s the thing about Woohyun, he’s not being sarcastic, he really does feel sympathy for Sungyeol right now despite everything.

“Self-sacrificing idiot, I think you mean,” Hoya says scribbling something down in his crossword. It’s an English one so Sungjong can really only pick out one in every four or five words.

Woohyun sticks his head back into the room. “Hypocrite.” he says before popping out again.

It’s interesting, even though Sungyeol is the one that’s been the awful to him, Woohyun has still been reserved and hesitant around all of them this entire job. It’s probably a result of the way Sungyeol’s been treating him (it’s shitty, though Sungjong completely understands why Sungyeol is feeling the way he is and he was kind of pissed at Woohyun himself for a while) but it does nothing to make him seem more trustworthy.

It’s only Hoya who Woohyun seems his normal self around. Sungjong doesn’t think about it any further because he doesn’t want to know if it’s simply the fact that Hoya is the only one that’s treating Woohyun the same as normal, or if there’s something messier there. This job is already messy enough as it is.

Hoya has finished his crossword and moves onto a sudoku, which Sungjong is much more able to assist with, when Woohyun returns with enough breakfast for the three of them, “Where are Dongwoo and Sunggyu?” he asks as he sits.

“They’re on Myungsoo monitoring duty,” Hoya answers before sending an absent-minded, “Thanks,” in Woohyun’s direction that Sungjong echoes.

The rest of the morning is pretty subdued for them, Sungjong and Hoya going over their plan for their big distraction and Woohyun pottering around making food and tidying up. He’s not really got anything to do for the plan at the moment, which makes sense, but he’s probably feeling pretty useless. It’s basically doing no one any good.

Eventually, Sungyeol stumbles out of Hoya’s room, sleep mused and still wearing the same clothes he’s had on for at least 48 hours. He doesn’t even stop to eat, making a beeline straight for his laptop and booting it back up again.

Hoya and Sungjong exchange a look but it’s Woohyun that goes into the kitchen, bangs around in there for ten minutes and drops a plate of food in front of Sungyeol.

Sungyeol doesn’t look up but he does say a genuine, “thanks,” which is probably the most civil he’s been to Woohyun in months. If he even registered it was Woohyun that gave him the food (Sungjong wouldn’t bet on it).

He’s barely been working for half an hour (including the time it took him to scarf down the food) before he’s looking up at Hoya with wide eyes, “I got it.”

Hoya puts down his paper and looks at Sungyeol, “Got what?”

“Got the Chief Justice,” Sungyeol says, still looking surprised.

There’s silence as the three of them before Hoya swears, “Fuck. Someone better call Sunggyu.”

 

 

 

♘♘♘

“There better be a good reason that you’re pulling me in here,” Sunggyu mutters as he returns to headquarters, Dongwoo and Myungsoo trailing behind him. As soon as Sungyeol had dropped the bomb on them, Hoya had gotten on the phone to Sunggyu insisting that they come back right away.

There’s probably not any reason they couldn’t have waited until the evening, but everything feels so rushed and urgent this job. That and Hoya was probably suffering separation anxiety. 

“Well, Sungyeol found your trump card,” Hoya says looking proud, as if he had anything to do with Sungyeol’s achievements.Maybe Hoya has decided to adopt everyone as his new pet, Sungjong should keep an eye on that.

“Alright, let’s hear it,” Sunggyu says, taking his seat at the head of the table.

Now that Sungjong knows what it is, he takes a great deal of enjoyment watching Sungyeol build up the tension before dramatically saying, “SM have bigger figures on their payroll than we though.”

Sunggyu sighs in annoyance, “Well then fucking tell us,”

“The Chief Justice,” Hoya says like the shit he is, stealing the wind out of Sungyeol’s sails. Sungyeol glares at Hoya, but Sungjong is more interested in the shock on the three newcomers faces. Dongwoo’s jaw literally drops open and Myungsoo grips his hands onto Hoya’s shoulders as he stands behind his chair so tight that it must be hurting Hoya. Sunggyu’s reaction is the most interesting though, the way he furrows his brow and that lightbulb look flits across his face.

“That’s bigger than we thought,” Sunggyu says, the wheels clearly already turning in his head.

“That’s what I said,” Sungyeol roles his eyes.

“Do you think that means the president is involved?” Woohyun asks what Sungjong had been thinking but was never going to actually ask, “Seeing as she’s the one that appointed the Chief Justice?”

“I don’t _think_ so,” Sunggyu says though he doesn’t sound particularly sure, “It’s pretty risky to buy off the President or the Prime Minister.”

“They’re high profile, too scared of repercussions to sell out for anything less than a ridiculous sum or a personal connection,” Hoya continues the train of thought Sunggyu had got lost in, “It’s better value for money to get a handful of powerful people in different positions with different circles of influence than someone like the president since her trying to serve SM’s interests in different fields would raise suspicion.”

Hoya sounds very sure of that, and Sungjong’s not the only one that’s looking at him in a mix of confusion and hesitance. Hoya shrugs, unbothered, “If the President changed six or seven things to serve SMs interests then people would ask questions, seven different people doing seven individual things isn’t a pattern. Plus the President changes every five years, so it’s a hassle to have to buy off a new president so often.”

“That makes sense,” Woohyun says slowly as if he’s slightly horrified he’s following the logic,

“I mean, it’s kind of my area of expertise,” Hoya says, getting dangerously close to revealing something Sungjong has actively tried to avoid finding out about (namely his post-discharge, pre-Myungsoo history), “The same way you’re the _body language expert.”_ Sungjong can’t tell if he’s mocking Woohyun or not, "But," he adds as an afterhtought, "That doesn't mean she can't be bought off, just that SM probably haven't done it."

“The point is,” Sunggyu cuts them off, “The Chief Justice is a big deal.”

“That’s good though right? it means that you have more ammunition to confront SM with, you’re more likely to get the confession,” Dongwoo asks.

“It also makes it a bit more complicated though,” Sungyeol points out, tapping his fingers on the table as if it was a computer keyboard, “because The Chief Justice is the head of the judicial system so SM essentially has the courts in their pocket.”

Woohyun looks like he wants to say something but doesn’t. It’s Sunggyu instead who says, “It doesn’t change that much. We’re still bypassing any sort of government system and going straight for the public, and as we’ve mentioned the bigger the figure the more the outcry.”

“But is there any sort of precedence for removing a Chief Justices?” Sungjong has to ask. He’s a little more experienced with the legal system than most of the others.

“I think the Constitutional Court might be able to? Or just the President? If they’re revealed to be corrupt, there’s got to be some way.”

“Plus, if he’s arrested he’s still accountable to the law,” Hoya points out dryly, “Just because he’s a judge doesn’t meant it doesn’t apply to him.”

“True,” Sunggyu says biting on his lip in thought, “Okay, this is where we adjust the plan,”

He says, before going into some long winded explanation of what is essentially the same plan they’ve had all along. Instead of listening, Sungjong tunes out and observes the team.

Sungyeol and Woohyun are sitting next to each other, bodies angled into each other as they contribute the most civil discussion they’ve had in weeks, building on each others ideas. Sungjong wonders if Sungyeol is even aware that he’s very obviously mirroring Woohyun’s body language.

 

Sunggyu is holding court at the head of the table, in his element as he always is at moments like this. Dongwoo is sitting next to him, quite literally his right hand man, listening intently but rarely asking questions and even more rarely offering suggestions.

 

Then there is Hoya and Myungsoo. Myungsoo is still standing behind Hoya’s chair whilst the rest of them sit, hands resting on Hoya’s shoulder, so close to his neck that even after having seen the two of them for years he’s surprised Hoya’s completely relaxed.

It’s only because he’s sitting right next to Hoya that he can hear him whispering, “you right Soo?” as the others continue to spitball their frankly, quite lame, ideas.

“Yeah.” Myungsoo whispers back, clenching his fingers tight once again, “I just. I don’t want to sit. I sit too much.”

That makes no sense to Sungjong, but amazingly enough it must to Hoya (or he’s just pretending it does) because he reaches up and squeezes Myungsoo’s hand, whispers back, “Okay Soo,” before tuning back into the conversation, if the focus of his eyes are anything to go by.

Sungjong should follow his lead.

“So what you’re essentially saying,” Hoya says cheekily, “Is that the plan is the same as it was before we’ve just filled in the mysterious blanks of who their bought politicians are.”

“Well, yes,” Sunggyu says waspishly, “But the details of who does change things.”

“Barely,” Hoya shrugs, which doesn’t dislodge Myungsoo’s hands at all.

Sunggyu and Hoya start off on that odd bickering do, where they’re bickering but actually constructing a plan and getting on the same wavelength at the same time and everyone else tunes out.

Finally, this plan is about to shift into motion. It’s about time, Sungjong thinks, it’s been boring so far anyway.

 

 

♟♟♟

Myungsoo feels like his brain is about to leak out of his ears.

It’s not even an exaggeration. Everyone knows, by now, that he’s unfortunately prone to stress headaches.

Tension headaches the one doctor his aunt had bothered to take him to had called them. Myungsoo has done his research on tension headaches though and he’s sure what he’s prone to can’t be that simple. Can’t be that common and mild.

There’s probably something seriously wrong with his brain (more likely they’re stressed induced migraines - something else he’s been prone to as a kid though those had always resulted in throwing up and being bed ridden for days).

The truth is Myungsoo has no clue what they are, and doesn’t really need any sort of diagnosis. He just knows that if a job is more stressful than usual he’s going to get a side splitting headache.

And they’ve never had a job that comes even close to this when it comes to stress levels.

It’s probably why this headache, though ebbing and waning in severity, hasn’t left him in a week. Today is a terrible day though.

Howon takes one look at him when he walks through the door to the apartment after his day in SM and tuts disapprovingly.

“You can’t keep doing this to yourself Myungsoo,” He says, abandoning all the food he’d clearly been preparing for when Myungsoo came home and walking towards him.

“I’m not doing anything,” Myungsoo mutters, sagging into Howon as soon as he wraps his arms around Myungsoo waist.

Howon tuts again but doesn’t actually say anything. Myungsoo knows what he’s probably thinking, that Myungsoo let’s himself get too stressed, but he doesn’t say anything about it (this time).

Instead he asks Myungsoo, “Do you feel up to eating?”

“Yes,” Myungsoo says, even though he doesn’t particularly. Howon had clearly put effort into cooking so he lies.

Howon knows him too well to pull that on, “Are you saying that because it’s true, or because you don’t want to put me out?” he asks with a little laugh.

“The second one,” Myungsoo admits into Howon’s neck.

Howon laughs again, “How many years have you known me Kim Myungsoo?”

Myungsoo tries to think of the answer through his hazy brain but he’s coming up blank, “Lots?” he eventually asks sheepishly.

“Right, lots,” Howon says, “Which is going to offend me more? Dinner going to waste or you lying to me,” he’s joking, because a little white lie never hurt anyone, but Myungsoo gets his point.

“Okay, I don’t really want to eat.” He admits.

“That bad huh,” Howon asks, pulling back so he can brush the bangs out of Myungsoo’s face. Myungsoo bends his knees and sighs, it feels nice. Howon’s hand is cool and gentle on his clammy feeling face.

“Yeah,” Myungsoo admits.

“Bath or bed?” Howon asks him, even has he’s carefully directing them back through the apartment to the bedroom. Myungsoo is walking backwards but he doesn’t bother looking over his shoulder because he knows Howon would never walk him into anything (he’s less likely to walk into something like this than he is on his own).

Myungsoo thinks about it, long and hard, before he decides, “Bed.”

“Okay,” Howon says pushing Myungsoo onto the bed gently. Myungsoo hadn’t even realised they’re reached the bedroom, dim because the lights hadn’t been turned off yet but not completely dark as the last dregs of twilight came through the window, “You get changed, I’ll get you something light to eat and some painkillers, okay?”

“Help me?” Myungsoo asks as pitifully as he can, holding his arms out in front of him and pouting.

Howon laughs at him, “You’re perfectly capable of getting changed yourself Myungsoo.”

“But I don’t want to,” Myungsoo whines playfully.

Howon shakes his head, “Get changed Myungsoo, I’ll get your food, drugs and then I’ll give you a head massage, okay?”

That sounds nice, Myungsoo thinks as he sinks into the cushions on the bed. He doesn’t move until Howon returns.

“I’m not even surprised,” Howon says, putting the food and a glass of water on their bedside table before coming to sit next to Myungsoo, “I’m still not helping you,” He says, running his fingers through Myungsoo’s hair, “Sleep in your clothes, see if I care.”

(Myungsoo learned a long time ago that ‘see if I care’ translated to ‘I care more than I know what to do with’ in Howon language).

“Can you at least take my shoes off?” Myungsoo asks wiggling his feet.

“I can’t believe you’ve got your shoes on the bed, you’ll be getting everything filthy,” Howon mutters like he gives a shit about filth. More likely he just wants to complain.

He does take Myungsoo’s shoes off for him though so that’s something. Then he helps Myungsoo sit up (lean on his side more like it) and makes him eat half a bowl of rice before handing him the painkillers.

When he gets up to take the dishes back to the kitchen, Myungsoo is hit with a strong wave of fondness, not uncommon around Howon. Not after all this time.

“Howon,” Myungsoo calls, when he’s almost at the door.

“Yeah, Soo?” Howon asks, sticking his head back into the room.

“You’re the best person on this planet,” Myungsoo tells him deadly serious. He hasn’t met everyone on this planet but he’s convinced that there can’t possibly be someone out there better than Howon.

Myungsoo doesn’t miss the pleased way Howon smiles as he leaves the room.

 

♖♖♖

 

“Just tag a car with a GPS tracker Dongwoo,” Dongwoo mutters to himself under his breathe as he stands in the basement carpark of the building, “It’ll be easy Dongwoo, because subtlety is what you’re known for. It’s not like you’re going after one of the most powerful people in South Korea with your subpar grifting skills or anything, nothing could go wrong.”

“I can hear you you know?” Sunggyu says wryly down the comms

“Yes I know,” Dongwoo says, trying to play dumb, “Thats the point of comms remember. So you can hear me and help me if something goes wrong.”

“I’m the only one listening, you can cut the bullshit.” Sunggyu laughs. It’s the first time Sunggyu has laughed since they’ve been in Seoul, so Dongwoo counts that as a win even if it wasn’t his intention.

“It’s not bullshit. I remembered the comms,” he says, standing with his directing light thing, waving people into the carpark. He’s not even sure why this is a real job or why anyone would want to do it, he’s only been at it a couple of hours and he’s already going mad, “I wasn’t even talking to you.”

He wasn’t, he was just talking to himself as a way to distract himself. Sunggyu should know that by now.

“How is it going?” Sunggyu asks him, probably to distract him, as Dongwoo starts bouncing on the balls of his feet. He doesn’t like standing still for extended periods of time, he’s got to be doing something.

“Okay, The Chief Justice isn’t back yet though,” Dongwoo pouts. He was only meant to be here an hour tops, Dongwoo would stick around long enough that he wasn’t seen as just loitering (if anyone even paid attention to a traffic warden) but short enough to just get the job done. Unfortunately the Chief Justice had been called out to a meeting, so here Dongwoo is. Still.

“Hang tight,” Sunggyu tells him.

“Not like I have any other option,” Dongwoo says bouncing on the balls of his feet, and punching the air.

“Stand still won’t you,” Sunggyu says, Dongwoo can _hear_ the eye roll in his voice, “The point is to be unremarkable, for no one to remember you.”

“Are you stalking me with traffic cameras?” Dongwoo asks cheerfully. He’s surprised Sunggyu knows how to do that, though maybe Sungyeol set it up before he went off to Myungsoo watching duties, “That’s kind of an invasion of my privacy.”

“Says the man about to put a tracker on the car of one of the most important men in South Korea,’ Sunggyu scoffs. That argument makes no sense.

“Because _you_ told me too,” Dongwoo says indignantly. Not that he feels indignant, this is Sunggyu after all, but it’s fun to rile him up.

“If only you did everything I told you too,” Sunggyu says with a sigh. As if he entire reason he dragged Dongwoo into this life of crime out of all the people he worked at Woollim with, wasn’t because Dongwoo wasn’t afraid to disagree with him.

Dongwoo doesn’t get a chance to retort because Sunggyu is cutting himself off, “There’s a car coming. Please pretend to be normal for halfa second.”

Dongwoo does as he’s told, standing and waving his pretty glowing light as the car passes him without slowing. It’s only once it’s passed him that he realises, “oh. the Chief Justice has returned.”

“Got it,” Sunggyu says, probably tracking the progression of the car with his cameras. If he knows how to do that. What seems like a lifetime, but is probably only five minutes later Sunggyu says, “Okay he’s in his office. Wait like twenty minutes to make sure he’s not going to come back because he’s forgotten something and then do as we discussed. I’ll get someone to come and get you.”

“Someone,” Dongwoo snorts. Sunggyu is almost certainly going to send Woohyun, because he lacks subtlety (and everyone else is doing their own parts of the job but he firmly believes that Sunggyu would have sent Woohyun anyway).

Still, Dongwoo does as he’s told, waiting twenty minutes before heading for the bay that’s reserved for the Chief Justice. Making sure that no one is around he pries the cars mirror back gently, sticks the GPS that Sungyeol gave him (and spent forty minutes explaining how to use - it’s not that complicated) on the back of the mirror and turns it on. Once he’s finished that he replaces the mirror before repeating the process with the tail light.

Maybe that’s the reason he’s been given this job, because he knows cars. It’s a more flattering thought than because he’s simply the only one left over at the very least.

There’s a close call as someone else comes down to the car park as Dongwoo is replacing the tail light but he manages to slip round the corner, easy to go unnoticed as the person doesn’t look up from his phone.

“Done,” Dongwoo says, ditching the vest and light stick thing in the parking inspector office and legging it out of there. If anyone notices that the parking warden is missing, they probably hadn’t noticed Dongwoo enough to draw any sort of attention.

“That was fun,” Dongwoo laughs as heads for the car that’s pulls up to pick him up. As he predicted it’s Woohyun that’s driving “Like I was in an action movie.”

“ _That’s_ what makes you feel like you’re in an action movie?” Woohyun asks skeptically as Dongwoo gets into the car, “Not the whole, knocking heads together, beating people up, your _usual_ job.”

“Well, yes but this was like a cool spy movie or something,” Dongwoo says as he buckles himself in and Woohyun speeds off, “We’re like Ocean’s 11 and SM is the evil guys casino.”

“You know in the sequel to that movie the bad guy finds them and forces them to repay him,” Woohyun points out dryly as they drive away.

“Yeah,” Dongwoo agrees, “But we’re not just robbing SM we’re hopefully crippling them.”

“Well,” Woohyun shrugs, “can’t argue with that logic.”

Dongwoo beams.

 

♟♟♟

 

No matter how many days he does it, goes into the SM building as his alias and escapes without being discovered, it never gets any easier for Myungsoo. If anything his stress levels rise, as the threat of him letting something slip grows. It really should have been Woohyun doing this job, he’s so much calmer and more confident than Myungsoo under pressure, if only he didn’t have an SM connection.

It doesn’t help that Kim Jonghyun seems to be watching him. That could be his paranoia talking, but Seulgi has been chattering on at him about how members of Jinki’s team never bother to visit the training base, so it’s probably not paranoia.

Besides he’d rather be paranoid than kidnapped, or dead.

Despite the fact he’s terrified and paranoid, he’s settled into a bit of a routine of paranoia and terror during the day, hiding out from the world with Howon in their apartment at night (the one blessing is his cover having it’s own apartment whilst the rest of them are squished together in that hell hole of a headquarters).

Today though, he’s nervous, more nervous than he was stealing the information, as nervous as he was walking through the doors on his first day sure someone would recognise his face and shoot him on the spot.

Today he has to betray Howon.

He’s not actually betraying Howon of course, but it feels like he is as stupid as that is.

Howon had laughed this morning before they’d left, though not at him, “Come on Soo,” He’d said, wrapping his arms around Myungsoo waist and tucking his shoulder under Myungsoo’s chin, “Even if you were betraying me for real do you really think SM’s goons are better than me?”

“No,” Myungsoo had replied petulantly, readjusting himself (bending his knees) so he could hide his face in Howon’s neck, “But there are more of them. _And_ they might have guns.”

“Myungsoo, I’ve survived a war zone or two,” Howon laughed, that nice rumbly laugh that Myungsoo can feel, “I promise you I can survive SM.”

“If you’re allowed to worry about me I’m allowed to worry about you,” Myungsoo insisted. It’s not _fair_ that Howon is always worrying about him, it makes him feel like the weaker link.

“I guess that’s allowed,” Howon said running his fingers through Myungsoo’s hair in the way he knows Myungsoo liked. Unfair. He’d been unfair, “But at least I know they’re trying to get me.”

“No buts,” Myungsoo had leaned back so that he could cover Howon’s mouth with his hand, “we’re both justified in worrying equally.”

Howon had brushed a kiss on the palm of his hand before nodding.

“Come on,” Sungjong had interrupted them by knocking in the doorframe before sticking his head into the room. Myungsoo hadn’t even been aware he was in the apartment so it was a miracle of consideration that Sungjong had knocked at all, “If you two are done being domestic and gross we’ve got to go.”

“Can I just say, I think this is a terrible plan,” Myungsoo had said as he’d fitted his comms unit into his ear.

“So do I,” Howon had agreed, mirroring his action, “It’s a waste of the advantage of my face.”

“No one’s every said your face was an advantage before,” Sungyeol had snarked down the line.

“Fuck you,” Howon had snapped back with no heat.

And Myungsoo had laughed and felt a little bit better.

That was hours ago though and the feeling was long gone by now though, replaced with anxiety and doubt.

“Myungsoo,” Sunggyu’s voice filters over the comms, just as he’s started to think this plan is a very, very bad idea, “Any time you want to start would be great.”

If Myungsoo wouldn’t be overheard the second he spoke, he’d be sorely tempted to tell Sunggyu that this is a stupid plan and he refused.

Of course he didn’t refuse, he could never, but it’s the first time he truly feels like he wants to.

“Myungsoo,” Sunggyu prods again, gentler this time, “We really need to go otherwise I’m going to lose my window.”

Still, Myungsoo hesitates.

“Soo,” That’s Howon, “I promise we’ll be fine. If you don’t do it, Sunggyu is going to end up fucked.”

Myungsoo sighs. Howon has a point though, “Okay.” Myungsoo says.

He’s pretty sure he’s not imagining the sigh of relief that Sunggyu lets out.

He opens up the monitoring software that they’re supposed to take turns using to check the security of older SM buildings. Everyone half asses it, but Myungsoo has made a point to do it properly so he won’t seem suspicious now. He flicks through the other buildings in his usual order before settling on the one Sungjong and Howon are at.

He pauses, frowns. Pretends to peer closer. Opens some footage from previous days and flicks between them. Frowns again.

“Does that look weird to you?” He eventually asks Seulgi, once he’s sure that his performance has been convicting enough, to get someone to back up his story.

“Sorry, what?” She asks, peering at his computer screen over his shoulder, “Why are you looking at security footage from the old archive.”

Myungsoo shrugs, “Sweeps.”

“You're the only one that bothers with the old archive”’ She laughs, “I guess you really are eager for that promotion.”

“Yeah,” Myungsoo says awkwardly, because he can’t think of a worse thing than an ‘SM promotion’, “But look. That’s weird isn’t it?” He asks, zooming in on where Sungjong and Howon are milling around, dressed as SM guards but very clearly not quite right.

“That is weird,” Seulgi says, peering closer, “I’ll go get Mr Kim.”

She goes off, no doubt to claim some of the credit for the discovery herself. Myungsoo takes the opportunity to whisper, “No backing down now,” Everyone can hear him but it’s mostly a pep talk to himself.

Mr Kim soon returns. “Sir,” Myungsoo says once he’s arrived, “There’s something not quite right about these two guards. Their uniforms don’t match.”

Mr Kim peers at the screen, just in time for Sungjong to take his mask off and look straight at the camera. Mr Kim stiffens.

“Daehyun, good spotting my boy,” It’s the closest he’s ever gotten to a compliment from Mr Kim, it makes him feel all nasty. “You two, come with me,” Mr Kim gestures to Myungsoo and Seulgi, expecting them to follow, and of course they do.

He pulls out his phone as they stride away, ordering all their ‘soldiers’ besides the bare bones minimum security to the old archive, because he thinks they’ve found two of Sunggyu’s team. He’s very excited by the fact he believe one of the two unidentified members are there (which makes Myungsoo breathe a bit easier, he thought Sunggyu said they had a picture of him, but if they consider him unidentified, maybe he's safer than he thought).

As he watches the drama unfold on the monitor in the control room, trying to hide how nervous he is for Howon (and Sungjong), he really hopes this idea doesn’t bite them in the ass.

 

♘♘♘

 

Sungjong is ridiculously excited to finally get to do something.

Sure he's stolen some bits and pieces with Dongwoo but that was such an insignificant job that they’d been sent in without comms. Now though, now he gets to do something important, gets to act as a diversion. With Hoya no less, Sunggyu’s plans have him teaming up with Hoya far less than he’d like.

“So,” Sungjong says as they sit on the ceiling of the building opposite their target, “There’s less security than I though.”

“Yeah,” Hoya says, not taking his eyes off the building despite the fact he’s done sweeps of it every day since they discovered it’s location. Sungjong supposes Hoya hasn’t lasted as long as he has in his line of work without being ridiculously, cautiously paranoid.“It’s an old archive they think no one knows about, and there’s nothing that important here.”

“So why are we breaking into it?” Dongwoo asks from his position in their getaway car. They’re spread out today, Woohyun as back up for Sunggyu, Sungyeol on Myungsoo duty (since it is the easiest of the lot) and monitoring all their comms, and Dongwoo as Sungjong and Hoya’s back up.

Sungjong knows he’s not the only one that dislikes them being so spread out at such a crucial point (dislikes the fact Sunggyu doesn’t have a hitter for backup - only Woohyun who will try his best but isn’t nearly as good as Dongwoo or Hoya) but Sunggyu was insistent and Sungjong sees his point, understands why a distraction is necessary.

“To feed their ego, make them get cocky,” Hoya answers the question Sungjong had almost forgotten was asked, “So they think we’ve made a mistake,”

“Because we’ve played our hand and showed them we’re after their archives,” Sungyeol continues the train of though, he’s probably bored and wanting to listen to the sound of his own voice, “ We’re so stupid we’ve gone after their old archive, so we get nothing from them, but they now know we’re here and after their archives so they can beef up security.”

“And the added incentive of Hoya’s face,” Woohyun suggests helpfully. Of course Woohyun is thinking about Hoya’s face.

“Yeah, in their eyes we played our best advantage,” If Hoya does say so himself, “and got no benefit out of it.”

“Right,” Dongwoo says, Sungjong can practically see the way he’s probably nodding his head along.

It’s a good plan, if a little risky, Sungjong thinks. If only Myungsoo doesn’t chicken out. They wait with baited breathe as the time Myungsoo is supposed to discover them passes.

Sungjong and Hoya exchange a look, but don’t say anything because Myungsoo can hear them. Still nothing happens. They exchange another look and turn the comms mics off at the same time. It means they can still hear what’s going on (they’re not stupid enough to take them out) but they can discuss without being overheard.

Sungjong’s not sure how or why Sungyeol even developed the function but it’s proved useful a couple of times for him, he doesn’t want to think about the others.

“He’s not going to do it,” Sungjong says getting up from his seat and pacing.

“Yes he will,” Hoya says with confidence he cannot possibly feel, not if the way he’s clenching his fist is anything to go by.

“He will if you tell him,” Sungjong says, when the minutes stretch by and Myungsoo still hasn’t given his signal that it’s time for them to go.

“He probably will,” Hoya says. He doesn’t make a move to turn his mic back on though so Sungjong takes that as a sign he’s not going to say anything to Myungsoo.

“Why?” Sungjong asks.

“If I keep telling him to do things in front of everyone, that’s bad for his confidence and for the way everyone else sees him,” Hoya confesses like it’s a thing he’s thought about before, “Myungsoo doesn’t need me to tell him to do things, he’s his own person he should make his own decisions,”

“That’s very noble of you,” Sungjong says, and the sentiment is even if the way Hoya had expressed it had been kind of … controlling (he knows though as much as Hoya pretends, his ability to articulate things fails him often, especially when it comes to things he really cares about), “Could you perhaps take that stand on a job where are lives aren’t all on the line?”

“I’m not his dad,” Hoya says, which is hardly a relevant response to what Sungjong just said. Maybe he’s been doing that thing where he practices arguments in his head and responds to what he thinks you’re going to say not what you actually said - Sungjong thought he’d broken that habit as a teenager (for obvious reasons) but apparently not.

There’s a very, very obvious joke there Sungjong could make but he choses not to. Mostly because it’s a line he doesn’t want to cross (and a mental image he doesn’t need in his head) with his oldest friend. Instead he just says, “well obviously not.”

They switch their comms back on then, and after another few minutes Sunggyu finally has enough and intervenes for them. Hoya has to say something eventually, but desperate times and all.

Then Myungsoo is finally agreeing, and they’re off.

Sungjong and Hoya move into position then. Slipping on their masks they cross the road and pick the lock of the back door in less than five seconds (Sungjong is almost certain that lock hasn’t been updated since the 80s and even Dongwoo could have picked it).

“Cameras are three feet on the left, just above the next door,” Sungyeol provides unnecessarily. Sungjong and Hoya had spent so long pouring over the blueprints for the building that Sungjong is pretty sure he had a dream about them last night.

“Thank you for the running commentary,” Sungjong says dryly, almost missing that female coworker that has a bit of a crush on Myungsoo running off to get her boss.

“3..2..1…” Sungyeol counts them down before Sungjong is removing his mask and staring straight at the camera. He can only manage to hold it for three seconds before bolting forward to pick the lock on the door, hiding his face habitually in the process.

“You’re not very good at this being conspicuous thing,” Sungyeol says conversationally, probably tapped into SM’s security feed.

“I’m not used to being caught,” Sungjong hisses in reply, “I don’t know how.” It had felt so wrong and he had a camera to be looking at so it should have been simple.

“Just think about that one time you and Dongwoo were caught,” Hoya tells him cheerfully.

“Next time you bring that up I’m going to stab you in the thigh with a rusty fork,” Sungjong says equally as cheerfully. Unfortunately he doesn’t think it’s going to do anything to dissuade Hoya.

“Guys,” Dongwoo says, “SM are about to send every man and their blood thirsty, savage dogs after you. No arguing till after.”

“Okay,” Sungjong says as he successfully pushes the second door open and they’re into the third door. Why they need to many doors for an archive that’s old and abandoned Sungjong doesn’t know.

It’s when they reach the third door, Hoya kicking it in because he has no finesse, that the alarms start going on.

“God, that’s fucking loud.” Sungyeol snaps.

“You’re not the one actually listening to it,” Sungjong says covering his ears with his hands. If Hoya’s face is anything to go by he agrees.

“Turn it off Sungyeol,” Hoya grits out between his teeth.

“Are you sure? This is more authentic.” Sungyeol says. Luckily even as he’s saying that he turns the alarm off. He does it so fast that Sungjong is half convinced he could have turned it off before it even went off but chose not to for his own amusement.

Sungyeol should be sent out into the field more often, maybe he’d grow some humility that way.

“There’ll be guards on you in about thirty seconds,” Sungyeol provides helpfully. Maybe they can keep him.

“I’ll go right, you go left?” Hoya says. Sungjong nods and they’re off.

Sungjong races down the corridor, trying really hard not to make note of all the vents he could be using to escape or the doors he could be escaping through. Instead he runs, keeping the blueprints he’s memorised in mind so that he doesn’t end up backed into a corner by SM’s barely trained guards.

After what’s basically ten minutes of playing some weirdly twisted version of tag meets hide and seek with an increasing number of SM soldiers Sungyeol finally says, “Okay Sunggyu I think they’ve sent everyone they’re going to after Hoya and Sungjong so now is your best window.”

“Have they sent everyone?” Woohyun asks conversationally,

“Well they’ve left the bare bones of security and a handful of people too important for chase duty but for the most part theres a couple of dozen people there.”

“They’re not doing a very good job,” Sungjong pants, heading for the rendezvous site with Hoya, “No one’s laid a hand on me,”

“Same here,” Hoya says not sounding at all out of breath which is categorically unfair.

Sungjong laughs as he gets to the meeting point unsurprised to see that Hoya is already there waiting for him, “You’ve got about 40 seconds until they’re on you,” Sungyeol says.

“Okay, get out of there.” Sunggyu says, “Lead them on a bit of a car chase. I’m going in.”

Hoya and Sungjong exchange a look, “We can’t let them get off too easy, can we now Sungjongie?” Hoya asks, that crazy spark in his eye.

“No we can’t,” Sungjong agrees with a nod, “It’s important SM still fears us a little.”

“What are you guys up to?” Woohyun asks suspiciously.

Hoya and Sungjong exchange another look before suddenly there are SM goons on them, about a dozen of them, Sungjong would says, in this tiny ass room.

Sungyeol swears, Dongwoo laughs and Sungjong is pretty sure he hears Myungsoo whimper.

“Hello,” Hoya says to the guards all surrounding them, uniforms pretty much the same as what Sungjong and Hoya are wearing right now, “Fancy meeting you here.”

Theres a few seconds of silence as if the guards are trying to decide what to do, trying to figure out what Sungjong and Hoya are up to just standing and conversing with them instead of trying to escape.

Then someone make the unfortunately decision to lunge at Hoya. It takes Hoya barely two seconds to knock him down. And then they’re all going for him.

Hoya loves it, he’s in his element, knocking some heads together, making stupid puns as he does it. Sungjong retreats to the back of the room to watch, picking up a helmet that Hoya had dislodged from the one of the guards.

Eventually when he’s decided he’s had enough of Hoya having all the fun, he cocks a gun that's been discarded on the floor in front of him (none of them have been shooting them, Sungjong’s not sure why, if they’re all for show or they’re too scared to use them in such a close space). Sungjong has no such reservations, and shoots one of the other guards through the shoulder before slipping away.

There’s a huge ruckus, as slowly some of the guards realise that they’ve lost one of their intruders. He shoots another, through the leg. Another in the arm.

Then they realise he’s dressed like one of them. It’s kind of funny, Sungjong thinks, watching Hoya kicking ass in his corner as the rest of the guards start turning on one and other. It helps that they’re not the lightest on their feet, so it’s pretty easy to shoot one and duck away so that they think an actual guard shot them, make them turn on each other.

Eventually, they’ve had their fun, there’s only two of the guards still standing as Sungjong removes his helmet. Sungjong’s pretty sure none of them are dead, at the very least, so Hoya’s shown admirable restraint.

“Tell your boss he’s going to need to do better than that,” Hoya says to the two guards.

“Hoya,” Dongwoo says warningly. Sungjong understands, messing around with some guards is one thing, actively taunting them with a message to take back to their boss is a dangerous game.

“Later losers,” Hoya says with a shrugs before Sungjong and Hoya run out the room (Sungjong is pretty sure he saw Hoya stick his tongue out at the guards of all things but that seems super juvenile. So on second thought entirely in character).

“So,” Sungyeol’s says once Hoya and Sungjong have made their escape, laughing the whole time, “I now know why Hoya and Sungjong never work together.”

“Because they’re even more batshit insane than you,” Woohyun says. It’s a miracle that Sungyeol doesn’t snap back, “Talk about not sticking to the plan.

“That plan was better,” Hoya says as Dongwoo pulls up in their getaway car, tires screeching.

“By better you mean more enjoyable for yourself right?” Woohyun asks dryly as the two of them hop into the back of the car. Hoya barely even has the door closed behind him before Dongwoo is driving away like a bat out of hell, laughing along with them the whole way.

“It’s not a real job if Hoya isn’t bashing heads in,” Sungyeol says. As if he’s not the one most likely to go way off script. Then he says more seriously, “Okay the doors to the archive are locked on my end, window shutter engaged, all those fun security measures they never thought could be used against them.”

“Nice,” Hoya says appreciatively. 

“It should take them about half an hour give or take to get them working again.” Sungyeol says“Which means Sunggyu you’re up.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer 1: I have no idea how the South Korean Political system works everything I learned for this fic came from wikipedia and google searches.
> 
> Disclaimer 2; Everything in this chapter besides the last two scenes was written before the SK president scandal broke, so nothing in that was written with the scandal in mind since as far as I was aware it didn't exist then. Chalk this up to another weird coincidence I guess.
> 
> Disclaimer 3: Myungsoo's headache scene clearly only exists because I was channeling my frustration at my own stress-induced headaches (though mine are stress induced migraines complete with flashing lights and noise sensitivity and all) sorry for being so self-indulgent but I think we all know by now that is exactly what this entire AU is so it's not surprising..
> 
> Anyway! See everyone back here next week with hopefully a higher quality chapter but my beta is a very busy lady so no promises xD


	14. Interlude: In violent times, you shouldn’t have to sell your soul

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go. Actual, proper action brought to you by copious amounts of tea, wine and my beta's ability to turn my word vomit into something semi-presentable.
> 
> With this chapter this fic is over 100,000 words which is kind of amazing? And we're probably only half way done I really didn't mean for this to get so long and I apologies for the length of this chapter (it's almost 13,000 words)
> 
> Anyway apologies in advance but kind of not really :).

 

**Interlude: In violent times, you shouldn’t have to sell your soul**

**o3.**

☆★☆

 

 _Made a plan_  
_It was grand  
_ _But you're still in the void_

 

♔♚♔

 

Sunggyu knows that he’s not the best suited member of the team for this job. Hoya with his ability to fight his way out of every situation (and get marks to reveal their secrets through sheer annoyance), Woohyun with his ability to talk pretty much anyone into anything, even Sungyeol who’s got the most well rounded set of skills Sunggyu has ever seen in a person: they would all be better for this job. 

He never even considered sending any of the others in to do this. This was his plan, and he was going to take the riskiest bit (arguably Myungsoo also has a pretty risky job but Sunggyu couldn’t do both). 

He remembers, back in their first year of working together, Hoya lecturing him. Lecturing him about how a good leader took the same risks he was willing to ask of his team. He hadn’t really thought about that since, not until he was planning this job. It’s why he’s doing this - mostly. He also feels like the threat will hold more weight coming from the perceived ‘leader’.

He doesn’t want SM to think he’s afraid of them, in fact his goal is the opposite.

All this logic doesn’t make him any less scared to be standing outside SM’s main headquarters, with only Woohyun for back up. He trusts Woohyun unequivocally but he’s not Sunggyu’s first choice of backup in this situation. Dongwoo and Hoya’s particular skill sets are needed elsewhere though, and Sungyeol needs to maintain the technology that’s so integral to this plan.

He listens as Hoya and Sungjong cause their little distraction, before finally Sungyeol gives him the signal, “Okay Sunggyu I think they’ve sent everyone they’re going to after Hoya and Sungjong so now is your best window.”

“Have they sent everyone?” Woohyun asks conversationally, from his position on the bench outside the building a couple down from the SM one. Close enough to do … something if their plan goes wrong, not close enough his face will be recognised by anyone coming or going.

“Well they’ve left the bare bones of security and a handful of people too important for chase duty but for the most part there’s only a couple of dozen people there.” Sungyeol confirms.

“They’re not doing a very good job,” Sungjong pants, apparently exhausted from running around for no more than 5 minutes. He’s clearly not as fit as he claims then “No one’s laid a hand on me,”

“Same here,” Hoya agrees sounding much fitter. 

Sungjong laughs at something though Sunggyu doesn’t want to know what.

“You’ve got about 40 seconds until they’re on you,” Sungyeol says as Sunggyu approaches the lobby of the SM building. 

“Okay, get out of there.” Sunggyu says just as he pushes the door open, “Lead them on a bit of a car chase. I’m going in.”

“We can’t let them get off too easy, can we now Sungjongie?” Hoya says. Sunggyu sighs, he should have expected that Hoya could never leave a simple plan well enough alone.

Sunggyu doesn’t say anything because he’s in the lobby of the building, walking up to the girl behind the counter. He just prays whatever they’re planning is not too risky.

“Welcome to Shinra Megacorp,” The girl says looking up at him with a polite smile that’s attempting to be disinterested. Sunggyu’s not fooled though, he can see that photo of him that Siwon had presented to him all those weeks ago on the desk. She knows who he is, “How can I help you?”

“You can tell your boss that I’m here to consider his offer,” Sunggyu says smoothly. 

“I don’t know who you mean.” She’s really quite terrible at playing dumb.

“I think we both know that you do,” Sunggyu says leaning over the top of the reception desk to tap the picture of himself on the desk, “So call your boss.” 

She gives him a strained smile before dialling someone. She doesn’t even get the chance to say anything, whoever is on the other line has probably been watching them, she just nods a lot before finally saying, “Yes sir.” 

Once she hangs up she gives Sunggyu one of the best judging faces he’s ever seen - he’d almost be impressed if he hadn’t known Hoya for years, “Mr Kim will see you now. Please follow me,” She says. Sunggyu does, following her through the halls of the building he’s pored over the blueprints for, trying to seem as if he’s got no idea where they’re going.

Once again he thanks Myungsoo profusely in his head for all the information he’d managed to get from SM, it had made this job immeasurably easier.

Sunggyu half listens to whatever shenanigans Hoya and Sungjong are getting up to whilst paying attention to his surroundings, taking note of every person he passes (he can’t figure out if the guard following him is meant to be discreet or meant to be a thinly veiled threat - whichever it is he’s failing at). 

The woman doesn’t say anything to him the entire time they’re walking, and he knows for a fact she’s walking him in circles, meant to confuse him and make it impossible to make his own way out.

In a twist of perfect timing that so rarely graces them, Sungyeol tells him that everything is perfectly in place just as the girl pushes open the doors of a big office, “Mr Kim, Kim Sunggyu is here for you.” 

“Thank you Irene, you can leave us” that man inside says, getting up from his big leather chair behind his big glass desk in his huge, sterile office with windows taking up three out of four walls. It’s a massive cliché and for a second Sunggyu wonders if they could just put Hoya’s sniper skills to work and be done with it (he would assume the windows were bulletproof glass but SM are so blindingly arrogant sometimes they skip the obvious as they’ve all come to realise throughout this job).

The man inside of course being Kim Youngmin, the current ‘boss’ of SM, although of course everyone knew Lee Sooman was pulling the strings.

“Sunggyu, take a seat,” Youngmin says gesturing to the chair opposite his desk as Irene closes the door behind them, “what can I do for you?”

“I thought we could talk,” Sunggyu says as he walks into the room, not taking the offered seat and instead remaining standing with his hands on the back of the chair, “About your offer.”

 “Come to reconsider?” Youngmin asks him, taking his own seat.

They both know he hasn’t, the diversion break-in had all but confirmed that, but for whatever reason Youngmin is playing along. 

“Maybe,” Sunggyu says, tightening his hands on the back of the chair. He’s got to play this carefully, if Youngmin pulls out a gun and shoots him in the middle of his office then this plan all goes up in smoke, “Maybe I want to talk about what SM can offer us.”

“What we can offer you?” Youngmin asks, “Were Leeteuk and Jessica not explicit enough? I thought our offer was very clear.”

“Oh it was,” Sunggyu says carefully, “But I want more details, how can you offer me job security, how can you ensure we’re never caught?”

“Friends in high places,” Youngmin says airily.

“Friends?” Sunggyu asks, seizing upon the opportunity, “You wouldn’t happen to make friends with your chequebook now would you.”

Youngmin frowns, lacing his fingers together and leaning towards Sunggyu across the desk, just slightly, “I don’t think I like what you’re implying.”

“Maybe I should be a little bit more explicit than,” Sunggyu says, treading carefully, “You have government officials in your pocket, I have proof you have government officials in your pocket.”

“Oh, really?” Youngmin asks, eyebrow cocked. He’s clearly not saying anything else. It makes sense, Sunggyu hasn’t provided any proof that he knows anything, for all Youngmin knows he’s simply fishing for answers. 

“The Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, The Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, The Speaker of The Assembly, and oh my personal favourite the Commissioner-General of Korean National Police Agency,” Sunggyu recites, ticking off on his fingers (it helps that Sungyeol is feeding him their titles down the comms), “I have some lovely proof that all these men and more are in your pocket,” Sunggyu says.

“That’s interesting,” Youngmin says. The twitch of his eyebrow gives him away though. The man should invest in some lessons on how to get a better poker face, it’s not like he can’t afford them. 

“Yeah, interesting is the word I’d use,” Sunggyu says, pulling a piece of paper with what Sungyeol says is proof of the transactions out of his pocket and throwing it on the table in front of Youngmin. He picks it up slowly, as if he thinks it’s about to bite him, unfolds it and reads.

“This is all you’ve got?” Youngmin asks, trying to play it off as nothing. His nervous swallow is another story.

“I’m sure this is enough. I’m sure the media would love to hear about this,” Sunggyu says smoothly.

Youngmin stands up, “You think this is enough to scare me?” He leans menacingly across his desk, “You’re trying to blackmail me? With these names? You’ve barely even scratched the surface. Do you know who else who would be willing to listen to my point of view?” 

Bingo. “No,” Sunggyu says smoothly, “Please enlighten me.”

“Well I’m sure the Prosecutor General, or the Editor in Chief of Korea Economic Daily would hate to hear how my honest business was being threatened with slanderous accusations by a known criminal,” Youngmin says in a low voice he probably thinks is intimidating, “So I would be very careful if I was you.”

“You have the Prosecutor General on your pay roll?” Sunggyu doesn’t even have to pretend to be shocked because this was one Sungyeol hadn’t managed to unearth in his digging (Sunggyu doesn’t think he got all the way through the information - they already had their important figure but if they missed someone this influential there’s no telling who else they could have missed).

“Yes.” Sunggyu is amazed by how much people are willing to incriminate themselves if you dig at their ego just a little, “Just to scratch the surface. You wouldn’t get three minutes with your blackmail scheme, whatever evidence you’ve managed to dig up. There’s nothing in these files that can’t have been doctored.”

He’s right there, though it hasn’t and they probably could prove it hasn’t. If the government is working against them though, especially someone in the prosecution’s office, then the fact they could be doctored would be enough.

 Which is why the footage Sungyeol has just recorded is infinitely more valuable than any information he could have hacked or dug up.

“That’s it?” Sunggyu asks knowing he’s pushing his luck a little, “That’s the scariest person you have? That’s not even a minister, he’s just a vice minister.”

“Why you little shit.” Youngmin looks like he would walk through the desk and throttle Sunggyu if he could, “You have no idea who we have. The Mayor of Seoul, the director of the National Intelligence Service, you name them they’re our puppets so you would do well to watch yourself and accept our offer. This is the last time I will make it.”

That’s more than Sunggyu ever thought they would get, more direct and more names. He’s almost pushed Youngmin slightly harder than he meant to which will probably make a clean getaway tricky, though not impossible. 

“I’d say it’s time to go,” Hoya’s strained voice comes down the line.

“Yeah, they broke my programming sooner than I thought they would,” Sungyeol agrees, adding defensively before anyone could ask, “It was asking a bit much even from me to keep that up and monitor Sunggyu,”

“No one is criticising you,” Dongwoo says soothingly.

“Thank you for your clarification,” Sunggyu says, agreeing yes he should get out of there if everyone would stop talking and let him concentrate, “Unfortunately I’m going to have to decline. Again. Have a nice day.” 

“You think I’m going to just let you walk out of here?” Youngmin asks, the door clicks open. Sunggyu can see in the mirror over the desk an armed guard walk in, “What on earth would make you so stupid?”

“Yes,” Sunggyu says calmly, “Because I have a Lee Sungyeol.”

That’s Sungyeol’s signal. Suddenly the lights in the room start to flicker, the monitor on Youngmin’s laptop behaves erratically and even the security camera in the corner starts to move, “Because no matter who you have in your pocket there’s no way that footage of you murdering me in cold blood is going to be able to be explained away.”

Youngmin clenches his fist, probably weighing up what he can do. Sunggyu doesn’t give him any more time, walking out the door briskly.

The guard makes as if to stop him, before Youngmin says, “Let him go. Let him think he’s won this round,” That’s clearly directed at Sunggyu himself, “Because you’ve made a mistake Sunggyu, one you’re about to regret.”

Sunggyu waves at him over his shoulder before he’s off, taking the direct route out of the lobby and onto the street.

Even as he leaves, paranoid the whole time someone is going to stop him, or worse hit him over the head fro how his cyber security team aren’t worth the office chairs they’ve parked their useless asses on.

Sunggyu reaches the entrance with no drama, Irene glares at him as he leaves through the lobby but what can you do. 

Thankfully, Woohyun is waiting with the car two buildings down, just as arranged.

“So,” Woohyun asks wryly as Sunggyu gets in next to him, “how long until you think they find the bug that Sunggyu planted?”

 “Too long. For them at least,” Hoya whoops.

Sunggyu has to agree. That went surprisingly smoothly. It should be clear sailing from here.

 

 

♖♖♖

Dongwoo is quite frankly exhausted.  

Today has been a stressful day, between everyone being so split up and the all-around high stakes of the plan, he’s spent most of the day worrying about everyone, but Sunggyu most of all.

Finally though it’s over, and if Sunggyu is to be believed the riskiest part of the job is over and done with. 

Hoya and Myungsoo are off doing whatever Hoya and Myungsoo do when they’re not with the team (something no one wants to think about too deeply), but the rest of them return to their base of operations in the evening, tired and exhausted. 

They’d finished up hours ago but they’d not risked coming home till now considering the very real risk SM was trailing one or all of them.

“Well,” Woohyun says as they all disperse themselves around the living area. Usually after a job, everyone goes off and does their own thing, reclaims their own space, but tonight they’ve come to a seemingly mutual though unspoken understanding, “That went surprisingly smoothly, all things considered.”

“Yeah,” Sunggyu says looking troubled. Dongwoo doesn’t like that look, that look means that Sunggyu is unsatisfied and some other ridiculous type of plan is going to eventuate very shortly.

Dongwoo decides this is a good time to ask, “Anyone have any requests for dinner?” Technically it’s Woohyun’s night to cook by the unofficial schedule they have going (alternating nights for Woohyun and Dongwoo. Not that the others can’t feed themselves, but considering how hard everyone is working Sungjong is the only one that Dongwoo trusts to remember to feed himself at the moment).

He’s met with a chorus of indifferent responses, which is to be expected, as he makes his way into the kitchen.

He keeps one ear on the gentle murmur of conversation in the living room, able to make out every word from some of them (Sungyeol) and only the sound of their voice from others (Sungjong). 

He’s halfway through preparation when he hears it. Woohyun says something, Dongwoo can’t really make out the words, but Sungyeol’s response is unmissable.

“That’s easy for you to say, what did you actually do?” Sungyeol spits nastily, “Sat in the nice safe car whilst the rest of us risked our asses or worked them off.”

Dongwoo walks back out into the living room in shock, to see if Sunggyu is finally going to draw the line he should have days ago. Woohyun doesn’t say anything, just looks down at his feet in a broken way that doesn’t suit Woohyun at all. 

“I sat on my ass in the car for the whole day as well,” Dongwoo reminds Sungyeol when it seems no one else is going to say anything, “Do you have something to say to me too?”

Sungyeol doesn’t even have the gall to look apologetic, just waves his concerns away, “You were the getaway driver, a distraction. That’s an important role. SM chased you, there was a risk involved.”

Woohyun still makes no word to defend himself which is concerning. “Woohyun was Sunggyu’s getaway driver, there was no way to know that SM wouldn’t follow them,” Dongwoo says trying to sound reasonable in response to Sungyeol’s extreme lack of reason, “There was the same amount of risk at the outset” 

Dongwoo knows why Sunggyu isn’t saying anything in Woohyun’s defence, knows that Sungyeol is going to feel ganged up on if too many people say anything and lash out even worse. He knows that Sunggyu knows that and his attempt to fix this was to get Dongwoo to intervene, he’s also pretty sure once this job is over, and it’s no longer life and death that Sunggyu is going to tear Sungyeol a new one. 

Sungjong has no excuse. Dongwoo understands, but he’s not impressed. 

Sungyeol looks like he’s about to say more, and Dongwoo is preparing himself for a fight, when Woohyun gets up, “I’m tired,” He says, “I’ll see everyone in the morning,” and then he leaves the room.

Dongwoo knows he has two options. He can stay and try and knock some sense into Sungyeol or he can go after Woohyun.

There’s no competition, though Dongwoo makes sure he shoots Sungyeol a disappointed look on his way out.

He is pretty sure he knows exactly where he’s going to be able to find Woohyun, so it doesn’t take him more than three minutes to track him down to the fire escape outside Hoya’s bedroom window.

“Hey,” Woohyun says as Dongwoo climbs through the window (he makes a mental note to apologise to Hoya for invading his space later but given the circumstances he’s sure that Hoya wouldn’t mind at all), “Did you draw the short straw?” 

“What?” Dongwoo asks, genuinely confused as he takes a seat on the window sill, not wanting to get too close into Woohyun’s personal bubble at the moment. 

“You know, you’re the one unlucky enough to come and make sure the grifter hasn’t had a mental breakdown that renders him useless to the team,” Woohyun says with a self-deprecating laugh that’s so, so uncomfortably bitter, “Although if Sungyeol is to be believed I’m already useless to the team.”

“Why are you listening to Sungyeol?” Dongwoo asks, because this is the biggest sticking point for him. He knows that Sungyeol is out of line - they all do though everyone is too reluctant to bring it up with Sungyeol at the moment because he’s the most important part of this plan. What he doesn’t understand is why Woohyun is letting Sungyeol’s words get to him.

They all know Sungyeol lashes out with bitterness he doesn’t really mean when he’s angry after all.

“It’s hard not to listen to Sungyeol,” Woohyun says, clutching his legs to his chest as a barrier between himself and Dongwoo, like he feels the need to protect himself from Dongwoo. It’s sad, Woohyun has had the hardest time of all of them opening up to the rest of the team for whatever reason, but after the Man in Love job Dongwoo had thought he was really getting better at it.

Then SM had to come and fuck everything up.  

“Really?” Dongwoo asks, trying to go a bit lighter to see if it will loosen Woohyun up, “Because I find Sungyeol spouts so much bullshit it’s relatively easy to ignore.” 

“He’s not wrong this time though,” Woohyun says quietly, looking over his shoulder at the wall of the building next door instead of at Dongwoo.

So that’s what this is about. Guilt. 

“Don’t be stupid.” Dongwoo says matter-of-factly, hoping that it snaps Woohyun out of his funk.

It works to an extent, Woohyun whipping his head around to look at Dongwoo in shock, mouth gaping. Dongwoo supposes it is out of character for him to be so mean, but in this situation it was called for, “Even at your most self-pitying Woohyun you cannot think you are useless to this team.”

Woohyun continues to look at him strangely, apparently unable to form words for the first time in his life, “Sungyeol is within his rights to be annoyed at you for keeping your Kibum connection from us, all of us had the right to be annoyed and I think Hoya and Myungsoo are the only ones that weren’t,” Dongwoo says. It’s probably not the reassuring talk that Sunggyu wanted him to give to Woohyun but Dongwoo thinks that it’s about time someone around here was honest and straight forward. 

“I know,” Woohyun admits, looking at his knees for a few seconds before forcing himself to look at Dongwoo again. 

“Exactly, you know we’re annoyed, you understand why we are. But Woohyun, it’s been months and you’ve proven yourself to us multiple times since then,” Dongwoo never, ever thought he’d have to be reassuring Woohyun’s ego but this year has been a strange one to say the least, “Sunggyu would not have put you in charge of a job if he didn’t trust you. If he didn’t think the others trusted you.” 

“Sungyeol doesn’t trust me,” Woohyun disputes. Dongwoo doesn’t think that’s the problem, thinks Sungyeol still trusts Woohyun despite everything and that’s probably part of his problem. 

“Sungyeol is throwing an extended temper tantrum,” Dongwoo hates being so harsh about a member of his team, especially when he completely empathises with Sungyeol’s hurt. That doesn’t give him the right to be so unnecessarily nasty to Woohyun - especially when he’s quite obviously hitting Woohyun where he  _knows_  Woohyun’s weaknesses are.

Woohyun snorts out a laugh in response to that, so Dongwoo thinks it’s probably safe enough to get off the window and onto the fire escape (which is good since his ass was starting to go a little numb).  

“I don’t want to listen to him,” Woohyun admits, long after Dongwoo has settled next to him, not touching but barely, “But it’s hard.”

“I know.” Dongwoo says. He doesn’t know, because he’s never had anyone come so relentlessly after him before, friend or enemy, but he can only imagine. He doesn’t have to imagine because he sees day by day what it’s doing to Woohyun.  

“Do you think, when this is all over, we’ll go back to normal?” Woohyun asks in the smallest voice that Dongwoo has ever heard him use, “Or do you think he’s going to hate me forever?”

“He doesn’t hate you,” Dongwoo says certain of the fact. He knows because when Sungyeol forgets that he’s angry at Woohyun, when they’re caught up in the adrenaline of a job or when Sungyeol is sleep deprived or so focused on the work he’s doing, he treats Woohyun the same way he always has.

“Forgive me for not believing you,” Woohyun says sounding so defeated that it breaks Dongwoo’s heart. If Sungyeol keeps this up much longer, if he doesn’t get his head out his ass as soon as this job is over, Dongwoo is going to have to do something. 

Like box him round the ears. 

“Oh Woohyunie,” Dongwoo says, unable to stop himself pulling Woohyun into a side hug any longer. Luckily Woohyun doesn’t resists it, instead sinks into his side (with Myungsoo around so rarely, Dongwoo wonders how long it’s been since any of them gave Woohyun any real sign of affection), “Please don’t believe him.” 

Somehow, he feels like the words go in one of Woohyun’s ears and out the other.

At the very least, he hopes he got Woohyun to realise  _someone_  is on his side.

 

♔♚♔

 

Sunggyu really, really hates this job sometimes.  

Over the three days since his confrontation with Youngmin he’s pored over the information that Sungyeol has mined from the thumb drive, analysed every second of the footage they’d recorded and even the couple of hours of audio they’d got before the bug he’d planted had been found and destroyed. 

Ultimately it’s not enough. There’s something missing, though he can’t for the life of him put his finger on what exactly that something is. 

“This is not good,” Sunggyu says to Hoya that evening, once everyone else has gone to bed or off on their own free time.

“What’s not good?” Hoya asks, sounding distracted. Probably worried about Myungsoo, they can all see the longer Myungsoo has to stay in the more stressed and distressed he’s getting. That’s one of the reason Sunggyu tried so hard to make sure they had everything they needed. 

“We don’t have enough,” Sunggyu says, rubbing at his eyes with the heel of his palm.

“What do you mean we don’t have enough?” Woohyun asks, emerging from the kitchen. Sunggyu hadn’t even realised he was in there - when had Woohyun gotten so quiet about his presence?

Sunggyu hadn’t wanted to bring any of the team into this until he’d talked it through with Hoya but if he sends Woohyun away he’s going to destroy the tiny bit of self-confidence that Dongwoo has managed to restore in him.

“I mean we don’t have  _enough_.” He answers, “We have enough to create suspicion amongst the people. We have enough that maybe some netizens are going to kick up a fuss, we might even have enough to get the government to investigate but we don’t have enough to nail them to the wall.”

“Are you serious? We literally have footage of him confessing to having powerful government ministers in his pocket,” Woohyun says sounding outraged. For being the member of this team that finds it the hardest to trust people, Sunggyu is often surprised by how much blind faith Woohyun has in people, “What more do we need?” 

“We need more proof.” Sunggyu says with a sigh.

“As far as Youngmin can claim, there was someone off camera threatening him with a gun,” Hoya says calmly. Sunggyu should have known Hoya was on the same page as him when it came to this kind of plan, he probably knew before Sunggyu had really even sifted through the information. 

“But there wasn’t, we have footage of his whole office,” Woohyun says in frustration, coming to sit next to Hoya. Sunggyu understands that frustration, he really does. 

“It doesn’t matter, he has enough powerful people in his pocket that we need a knockout punch,” Sunggyu says using a terrible metaphor that he probably picked up from Dongwoo somewhere along the line.

“Well where the fuck are we going to find something more substantial than the head of the company confessing to bribery and corruption.” Woohyun asks. It’s a good question. 

“It’s not so much we need to prove the bribery and corruption,” Hoya says stretching his arms over his head as if this is just another day at the office, “We need to prove that the bribery and corruption is being used to cover up violent crime, not just your standard corporate embezzlement. We need a scandal that's unprecedented not just another day in this country.” 

Sunggyu hadn’t even though of it in those terms, but now that Hoya says it the final piece slots into place. That is the thing he’d been missing. If the way Woohyun face clears is any indication, he gets it now as well.

“Is there no evidence of their illegal crimes in those files Myungsoo managed to get for us?” Woohyun asks. 

“Probably, but again that can all be faked, it would take the media too long to verify it, long enough SM could pay off or threaten whoever they well pleased, and keep it buried.” Hoya explains. Sunggyu is not going to question why he’s so in his element here, there are things about his team’s past he doesn’t want to know. He wants to be able to sleep in the same building as them at night, which is why he chooses to ignore how confident Hoya sounds when he adds, “Or choose to silence them more permanently.” 

“Okay, now that you’ve managed to sober the mood considerably,” Woohyun teases Hoya gently, “Do you have any suggestions as to how we can get this mystical proof that is good enough. And hopefully soon, because they know we’re here now it’s going to be a damn sight harder to get in now.” 

“Yeah,” Hoya agrees, mouth quirked. Hoya probably doesn’t need to be told considering he’s more invested than any of them except Myungsoo in getting this wrapped up as soon as possible. Now they know they’re here, they must at least suspect they have a contact on the inside, Myungsoo’s safety is getting more and more perilous 

“Yeah you have a suggestion or yeah you agree it’s going to be harder to get in now?” Sunggyu asks. 

“When Sungjong and I were on our little diversion expedition,” Hoya says drumming his fingers rhythmically on the table, “One of the guards taunted me with something that was interesting,” He pauses, like he’s trying to remember word for word what this guard said, “He said, we’d chosen the wrong archive for the really juicy stuff, and plus did we even think we could just walk out the door with the boxes,” 

Sunggyu and Woohyun exchange a look, “Are you sure that’s not a trap.”

“You should have seen this guy, he was really fucking dumb,” Hoya says so casually that he’s probably right - Hoya’s a good judge of character in that way, “Plus I think they thought they had us cornered, didn’t think we’d escape.” 

“They’ve probably beefed up security on their archives regardless,” Sunggyu says thoughtfully. Even as he says it though he knows it’s their only viable option. 

“You’ve come up with plans to get us into harder to get into places before,” Hoya says getting to his feet, “I’m sure you’ll manage again.”

Right. No pressure or anything.

 

 

♟♟♟

Myungsoo is more than ready for this job to be over.

Sure, he’s sure that all of them are in the same boat, everyone wants to be free from the shadow that is SM, but he thinks he has more personal motivation than the rest of them put together. 

“Do you think Sunggyu is going to send me back in?” Myungsoo asks Sungyeol as the two of them sit in his alias’s apartment.  

“Almost certainly,” Sungyeol says from where he’s sitting next to Myungsoo, bowl of popcorn in his lap. Myungsoo’s not going to question why he’s eating popcorn at 11pm when there’s no movie playing, he’s really not.  

Myungsoo sighs, because that’s exactly what he was expecting and exactly what he didn’t want to hear. 

“Do you think he realises how risky this is?” Myungsoo asks, chewing on his bottom lip, “Every single day the chance someone’s gonna be like oh that dude’s one of Kim Sunggyu’s team, better cut off his fingers one at a time until he talks.” Myungsoo says, not caring that he probably sounds particularly unhinged right now. He’s right to be worried, especially considering Fucking Kim Jonghyun might decide at any moment that he’s done with his shits and giggles and it’s time to turn Myungsoo in.

“Stop eating yourself you’ll ruin your face which is your greatest asset,” Sungyeol says, pushing a handful of popcorn into Myungsoo’s mouth, “I’m sure Sunggyu knows how risky it is, I’m sure he wouldn’t ask you to do it if he didn’t have to.” 

Myungsoo had thought that to begin with, but now he’s not so sure Sunggyu isn’t just keeping him there as a back-up plan, to cover his bases if something goes wrong. 

Except things are probably more likely to go wrong for Myungsoo than any of the others. 

Myungsoo doesn’t say this, thinks Sungyeol probably knows this, and instead angrily chews the popcorn.

“I don’t want to,” Myungsoo says, crossing his arms over his chest once his mouth is no longer full. 

“You’ve got to Myungsoo,” Sungyeol says imploringly, “If Sunggyu asks you to, please?” 

“That’s easy for you to say, you just get to sit in the van,” Myungsoo says petulantly. It’s stupid because he knows Sungyeol is working twice as hard as the rest of them. The thing is though he’s working harder but he’s also safer, relatively speaking, as safe as any of them can be when putting a plan to take SM down into effect. 

“Myungsoo,” Sungyeol says. Myungsoo can’t describe exactly how Sungyeol sounds when he says his name in that moment, but he does know he doesn’t like it, “Please. We really appreciate everything you’re doing, and if it makes this job a little bit smoother please, for all of us.” 

“You’re one to talk about making the job smooth,” Myungsoo snaps back, “Tell me is the way you’re treating Woohyun right now making the job easier?” 

Sungyeol recoils at the words, though Myungsoo knows the hurt is soon going to be masked with anger and defensiveness because that’s the way Sungyeol works.

“It’s not the same,” Sungyeol says stiffly. 

“You’re right, because not being a total raging knob to Woohyun is way harder and riskier than going into our fucking enemies headquarters every day, pretending to be one of them,” Myungsoo says crossing his arms over his chest. He’s tired and anxious and quite frankly he’s not fond of the side of his best friend that’s so relentless in his attacks on Woohyun, “my mistake.”

“I don’t understand why none of the rest of you are mad,” Sungyeol says, fists clenching and unclenching on his legs. It’s a more rational reaction than Myungsoo was expecting when he said the words unthinkingly, but Sungyeol could still go off at any second.

“We were,” Myungsoo says, though technically speaking him and Hoya were never particularly mad at Woohyun, “But we got over it and sure as fuck didn’t let it get in the way of the riskiest job we’ve ever pulled.”

“It’s not getting in the way,” Sungyeol says. Myungsoo isn’t sure if he’s blind or just in denial. He really hopes it’s the latter.

“You’re breaking his fucking spirit,” Myungsoo says because it’s true and he hates it. Hates watching it because he empathises and knows how terrible it is, he can only imagine the fact it’s coming from someone you consider a friend is so much worse. 

“Then his spirit should be stronger,” Sungyeol says. Myungsoo wonders if Sungyeol can hear the words that are coming out of his mouth, wonders if he realises he’s starting to sound like Myungsoo’s boss at SM, “Especially if he’s as amazing of a grifter as he claims he is.” 

“Sungyeol you’re being mean,” Myungsoo tells him, praying (probably futilely) that he finally listens, “You’re being mean and nasty and all round not a very nice person.” 

Sungyeol doesn’t respond then but he looks like he’s on the verge of lashing out at Myungsoo, and that’s the last thing that Myungsoo wants. “I don’t want to fight with you,” Myungsoo tells Sungyeol quietly, “So I’m going to drop it, but I just want you to know that you’re pushing Woohyun way too far and it’s probably going to end up messy.” I know from experience, he doesn’t say.

He’s not sure if Sungyeol hears that or doesn’t want to fight either because he sighs, “Okay. I hear you.”

“Good.” Myungsoo says, reaching out for Sungyeol, “Now come here.” Myungsoo isn’t sure if Sungyeol is being more clingy than usual because he needs it or because he knows Myungsoo needs it, but he comes closer, laying his head in Myungsoo’s lap. 

The two of them very categorically do not talk about SM or Woohyun or the possibility of Myungsoo having to go back into the office on tomorrow. Instead they talk about dumb, inane things well past the time that Myungsoo usually goes to bed when he knows he has SM duty the next day.

They’re still in the same position when Howon returns, hours later. He cocks an eyebrow when he sees them but doesn’t look particularly surprised, “Shouldn’t you be in bed,” Howon asks, shedding his bits and pieces in various places around the room as he’s in the bad habit of doing. 

“You’re not my mum,” Myungsoo sticks his tongue out.

“No, he’d be more of a daddy right?” Sungyeol asks teasingly. Myungsoo flicks him in the forehead for that because he’d rather Sungyeol just didn’t say anything, ever. 

“Long day?” Myungsoo asks, ignoring Sungyeol but not the tension that’s high in Howon’s shoulders.

“Yeah,” Howon says, rolling his shoulders back in the way he does when he’s stressed. Then, quickly, like ripping a Band-Aid off he says, as he walks towards Myungsoo “Sunggyu wants you back in tomorrow.” 

Myungsoo bangs his head back against the couch, “I don’t know how much longer I can do this,” He confesses quietly, because he doesn’t know how long he can keep this up.

“Wednesday will be your last day Soo, I swear,” Howon says, reaching out to cup his cheek, paying no attention to the fact Sungyeol is still laying in his lap (and probably making faces at them). 

“Tell that to Sunggyu,” Myungsoo pouts, resting his cheek firmly in Hoya’s palm despite it. 

“I will,” Howon says, and Myungsoo believes him, “And then we’ll go hang out on a beach in Auckland for a month.” 

“It’s winter in New Zealand,” Myungsoo points out. 

Howon shrugs with a cheeky smile as he leans forward to brush a kiss onto Myungsoo’s forehead, “Probably still warmer than here.”

Myungsoo tries to hide his pleased smile (he doesn’t even know why he bothers) as Sungyeol makes fake gagging noises, “Okay, if you two could go and be grossly domestic elsewhere I’d really appreciate it.”

Myungsoo would point out to Sungyeol that he’s in their apartment and if he doesn’t like it he could just leave, but he doesn’t bother. He knows that will do no good. 

“Aww, are you feeling left out?” Howon asks, ducking down as if to kiss Sungyeol’s forehead as well but ruffling his hair at the last minute instead. 

Sungyeol makes an indignant noise that kind of reminds him of that time Howon stepped on their cat’s tail, brushing at his hair as if he can brush Howon out of it, “Please stop trying to infect me with your gross marriedness.”

“That’s called polyamory,” Myungsoo supplies helpfully, “And unfortunately for you, polyamorous gay marriage isn’t  _really_  legal anywhere in the world.”

“Shame, Sungyeol would make a great house husband,” Howon says thoughtfully, jumping back with a laugh as Sungyeol gets up and starts to chase him around the apartment. 

Myungsoo laughs as he watches them feeling slightly better about this whole thing. 

One more day. What’s one more day in the grand scheme of things anyway?

 

 

♔♚♔ 

 

By the time Sunggyu thinks through his plan for going back into SM he’s pretty sure the fact that’s what they’re going to do has spread through the rest of his team. He’s also pretty sure Woohyun’s not the one to blame.

It’s probably why no one seems particularly surprised when he calls them in for another meeting on Monday afternoon after Myungsoo is back from ‘work’.

“I suppose there’s no use in even pretending that you don’t all know why we’re here.” Sunggyu sighs. Everyone is gathered in the living area of their latest hangout, Sunggyu’s starting to hate the place. It’s smaller than most of their bases of operations have been over the past few years, and they’re all more cautious than usual to go out, which means they’ve all gotten very sick of it (and each other) after a month.

“Well no one thinks you’re going to tell us the job is all done and we can go home,” Sungjong says dryly.

“You want me to keep going back,” Myungsoo says quietly. He’s sitting on the one couch in the space, curled so close into Hoya’s side that he’s practically sitting on him. Sunggyu’s noticed the more stressed that he’s gotten the less regard for personal space he has. Sungjong is perched on the arm of the chair and the rest of them are sitting around the dining table. 

“Only a few more days, I promise.” Sunggyu says, and he means it. The problem is he meant it the last few times, but SM has been trickier to get to than he’d expected.  

“Two,” Sungyeol speaks up, “I heard he was promised Wednesday would be his last day.”

That’s a little bit earlier than Sunggyu was planning, Friday was what he was aiming for, but based on the look Hoya is shooting him and how downright miserable Myungsoo looks he supposes that he could make it Wednesday.

“Okay, Wednesday.” Sunggyu agrees with a nod.

Dongwoo raises his hand, probably to lighten the mood slightly, and asks, “Am I the only one that doesn’t know what’s going on here?”

 “We need more information from SM,” Sunggyu explains, “We need more evidence that they’re committing violent crimes not just bribery and white collar crime.” 

“Where are we going to find it?” Sungjong asks. If everyone stopped asking him questions he would be able to tell them things a lot quicker.

“Their current archive,” Hoya speaks up this time. Sunggyu doesn’t know why he bothers, “I’m certain that they’ve got some sort of evidence there of the kinds of things they get up to.”

“It would make sense,” Sungyeol says, rocking back on his chair in a faux-casual way that’s doing little to hide how nervous he is, “What’s a better way to keep people under control than documenting all the illegal crimes they’ve committed under your watch. Physical copies of things probably to keep desperate hackers out.” 

“It’s how they keep some of their people loyal,” Woohyun says for the first time since they’ve come together, “You keep working for me or I’ll make very sure that you’re arrested for this crime you committed under my watch. At least half of the people in there aren’t there under their own free will anymore.”

That’s interesting information. It might also explain the way some of the SM goons they’ve encountered have behaved, explain Jonghyun for all intents and purposes ignoring Myungsoo’s presence.  

Sungyeol looks like he’s about to say something so Sunggyu nods, “There’s probably also information there on the people they’re bribing, to prevent them having a crisis of conscience and going back on their commitments.” 

Sunggyu is struck, once again, by just how lucky Sungyeol is that he managed to escape SM’s grasp. More and more it seems like he might be the only one who has ever done so. 

“Do we have any proof they exist?” Woohyun is asking cautiously, “Or are we still just going off the taunt of the guard Hoya dealt with.” 

“The security at the archive is no joke,” Sungyeol says, turning his computer around to show them some blueprint.

“It would need to be if they’re holding blackmail on thieves that are highly motivated to steal it back from them,” Sungjong points out dryly.

Hoya shakes his head, “There’s no way they’d only have one copy of stuff that important. The members of their own team are trying to destroy all traces of it, we only need one copy. We only need to prove it exists.” 

“The security is still no joke,” Sungyeol says dramatically, waving a pen at the laptop screen erratically, “Do you see this? Can you see this?”

“Yes Sungyeol,” Hoya says dryly, “I can read a blueprint thank you so much for asking Sungyeol.”

“So do we have proof it’s there or not?” Dongwoo asks. Sunggyu can always rely on Dongwoo to gently prod a conversation that’s gotten off track back in the right direction.

“No concrete proof as such,” Sungyeol swings the laptop back around towards himself, “But I sifted through the information Myungsoo got for us again, and there’s enough hints and references to that archive, thinly veiled threats at various people for me to be pretty sure it’s in there.” 

“At the very least there’s something they don’t want anyone getting their hands on,” Sunggyu says, “And it’s our best bet.” 

“If it’s not there?” Myungsoo asks hesitantly. Myungsoo is usually one of the most optimistic members of the team, but Sunggyu can’t blame him for being so worried this time.

“If it’s not there we re-group and think of something else,” Sunggyu says obviously. He doesn’t have a plan B. Or rather he does, but they’re already up to about plan M. “But I’ll keep my word you really don’t have to go back in there after this.” 

Myungsoo nods. Sunggyu doesn't miss the way Hoya's tracing gentle circles on his him with his thumb.

“So what’s the plan?” Sungjong asks, kicking his heel into the arm of the couch, “I’m assuming you have been thinking of a plan and that’s why it’s taken you so long to tell us about going back in and this blackmail subplot.”

 “It’s a pretty simple plan. You and Woohyun are going to go in, get the information and drive out the front door.” Sunggyu says with a dramatic flourish. 

The shocked looks he’s getting aren’t the most spectacular he’s ever gotten from his team (his personal favourite is still when he told them that Woohyun would be running the Destiny job) but they come pretty close.

Then, Sungyeol has to go and open his mouth, “Are you sure you trust Woohyun with such an important job? After all he hasn’t really  _done_  anything recently, he’s probably rusty.”

“Shut up Sungyeol,” Sunggyu sighs. He empathises with Sungyeol, he really does (Dongwoo has told Sunggyu that he’s the most accomplished grudge holder he’s ever encountered) but this is getting out of hand, “If you don’t have anything productive to add, please don’t say anything at all.”

“You want us to drive it out the front door?” Sungjong says, diverting attention from them because on very rare occasions he’s as much of an angel as he appears to be. 

Sunggyu shrugs, “Exactly. It should be a piece of cake.”

“Stop being a dramatic bastard,” Hoya says with a roll of his eyes, “and just tell us the fucking plan before Wednesday is actually here.” 

Sunggyu flips him off, but he does.

 

 

 

♟♟♟

 

Mornings with Howon are honestly Myungsoo’s favourite part of this whole undercover in the heart of SM’s operations thing. They’ve been cohabiting with the others - officially or unofficially - for so long that Myungsoo was starting to forget what it felt like to be just the two of them.

Sure they usually had a room to themselves, but there was something nice about coming into the kitchen after getting showered and dressed to find Howon making breakfast for them with no risk of Sungyeol’s sleep deprived ass guzzling a pot of coffee or Sungjong sneakily stealing food off Myungsoo’s plate. 

“Hi,” Myungsoo whispers, attaching himself to Howon’s back as he fiddles with the coffee machine.

“Hi,” Howon responds patiently, despite the fact Myungsoo has said hi to him at least four times since they’ve woken up this morning.

“Guess what?” Myungsoo asks, face mashed into Howon’s shoulder blade. It’s a miracle that Howon can hear him at all to be honest, but Howon is a bit of a miracle worker. 

“What?” Howon asks indulgently, doing something with the coffee machine that Myungsoo doesn’t understand. Honestly before Howon he hadn’t even bothered with coffee, now it’s mostly an efficient source of caffeine.

“It’s my last day today,” Myungsoo whispers, like it’s some big secret. Like he hasn’t been shouting it from the rooftop for the last three days, ever since Sunggyu told him. 

Howon chuckles at him, that kind, fond chuckle that is probably Myungsoo’s favourite thing on the planet (besides hugs, nothing that has been or will ever be invented could beat a hug from someone he loves), “Really?” he asks jokingly, “You mean you’re not going to go back in there for fun for the rest of the month.”

“You’re not funny,” Myungsoo tells him petulantly, even though he secretly thinks Howon is a little funny (just not so much when he’s  _trying_  to be funny). 

“Just a little bit,” Howon hums. Myungsoo has his eyes closed but he can feel Howon moving his arms as he continues doing whatever he’s doing. Myungsoo doesn’t know, the kitchen really isn’t his area of expertise. 

Eventually, Myungsoo isn’t sure how long it is because he’s fairly sure he’s dozed off against Howon’s back, he’s disrupted by Howon moving around in his arms so they’re hugging properly. It also means Myungsoo can stop bending his legs (most of the time he likes being taller than Howon but not when it comes to hugs).

“What’s bothering you?” Howon asks now his attention isn’t distracted by cooking. 

“Nothing’s bothering me.” Myungsoo says. He’s about to be home free, nothing should be bothering him at all. 

“Try again,” Howon says, so sure of himself Myungsoo kind of wants to punch him in the face (not really but it would be annoying if he didn’t love Howon so much). 

“Am I being a coward?” Myungsoo asks, wishing he was still clinging onto Howon’s from behind so he could keep hiding his face in his back. As it is Howon is too short to see his face like this, but he still feels exposed. 

“No,” Howon says straight away and with so much conviction that Myungsoo feels instantly better, even though Howon clearly has no idea what he’s talking about, “Why would you think that?” Then Howon pushes him out by the arms so he can peer up into his face, “Who’s been saying that to you? Has Sungyeol’s shit talking spread from Woohyun?” 

He looks so  _sincere_ about it that Myungsoo can’t help laughing at him, “No one said anything.” He says before adding “To me.”  

“No one said anything, period.” Howon says with conviction that it must be nice to have as he pulls Myungsoo back into a hug.

Myungsoo looks down at their feet and doesn’t say anything. “Soo,” Howon coaxes him gently, “If this is about you wanting to get out of SM as soon as possible that doesn’t make you a coward,” Of course Howon can see through him. 

“Doesn’t it?” Myungsoo asks, hating that he’s demanding validation from Howon, something he promised himself he’d stop doing. 

“No. I think the fact you’re scared as fuck, a very natural reaction anyone would have, but keep doing it is the opposite of a coward.” Howon tells him. That’s enough to reassure Myungsoo because he knows when it comes to this kind of thing Howon is always honest with him; it hadn’t been fun when he’d admitted Myungsoo had the most dangerous part of the job but now, it’s reassuring.

“Thank you.” Myungsoo says. He doesn’t say for what because it’s embarrassing to put into words but he’s pretty sure Howon knows. 

“Come on, eat your breakfast, growing boys need food and everything,” Howon smacks him on the ass before directing him towards the dining table.

“I don’t think that’s true.” Myungsoo says solemnly peeking over his shoulder at Howon to gauge his reaction, “Because if it was, based on the amount of food you eat you should be seven feet tall.”

Howon eats all of Myungsoo’s food in retribution but he honestly doesn’t mind, he goes into his last day at SM feeling good. 

 

 

♙♙♙

 

Woohyun has been itching to  _do_  something the entire time they’ve been in Korea, and now he’s finally getting his chance he’s nervous as fuck.

Not because Sungyeol never shuts up, or the risks are so high. Not because he’s going in with only Sungjong (not that he’d ever voice  _only_  Sungjong to his face, but Sungjong is not the best at violent situations - he usually just gets himself out of them an assumes everyone else can escape through the air vents the same way he can). 

The fact remains that Woohyun can’t put his finger on exactly what it is that makes him so nervous, but he is.

“Okay,” Sungyeol says to them over the comms, “Guard rotation is in place and I think Hoya is finishing up?” 

There’s some sort of grunting sound, a grunt of serious pain, before Hoya’s saying cheerfully, “Yep. The guards are all taken care of, give me two minutes and I’ll get their uniforms to you.” 

Sungjong and Woohyun exchange a look from the back of the van as Sunggyu sighs. 

There’s a quiet pause then: Woohyun knows that the others have both Myungsoo and their comms active, but Sunggyu had insisted that Sungjong and Woohyun couldn’t hear Myungsoo to avoid being distracted, before there’s a knock on the back of the truck.

It’s Hoya, two slightly bloody guard uniforms in his arms.

“How did you strip them so quickly?” Woohyun asks suspiciously. As soon as the words have left his mouth he wishes he’d never said them.

Especially considering the way Sungyeol is laughing, managing to wheeze out a ‘wouldn’t you like to know’ amongst his giggles.

“Practice,” Hoya answers with a shrug that’s not nearly as funny as Sungyeol’s reaction. It’s kind of sad actually, like everything to do with Hoya’s past seems.

That could just be Woohyun projecting though. 

Hoya leaves them then with a sarcastic salute, off to do some top secret mission for Sunggyu that the two of them are keeping between themselves.

Sungjong and Woohyun change into the guards clothes quickly and efficiently, then with their helmets on they drive their van straight into the SM archives.  

The guard on duty barely even gives them a second glance, “Shift duty?” He asks sounding bored.

“Alpha Thirteen Hotel,” Sungyeol says, Dongwoo laughing in the background.

It sounds so ridiculous that Woohyun is half convinced this is some stupid joke from Sungyeol. Except Sungyeol wouldn’t actually put the job (or Sungjong) at risk, so Woohyun parrots it back.

Amazingly enough it seems to be the right code (Someone at SM has clearly been watching too many American spy movies) because the guy moves aside with a nod of his head.

Woohyun drives through and parks their van, following the route he’d memorised last night off the blueprints Sungyeol had managed to get his hands on.

There’s no one around which is what Woohyun expected to find, according to the information Sungyeol had obtained the archives security runs on skeleton guards during the evening and is more heavily patrolled at night - probably says something about the cliché of thieves striking by dark.

“Okay, cameras have been switched to a looped feed,” Sungyeol says with a sigh, “So you guys are free to go.” Then he starts muttering about how this is too easy, he expected to have to stretch his creativity more against SM. 

That’s the point Woohyun would usually make a snarky comment but he refrains this time, instead lets Dongwoo (by the sound of it) smack Sungyeol on the back of the head.

“Right, the archive room is this way,” Sungjong says, getting out of the car and leading Woohyun despite the fact they’ve both memorised the blueprints. Woohyun should probably count himself lucky that Sungjong is walking at a reasonably slow pace.

It takes them less than five minutes to reach the room they’re looking for. About a foot out from the door Sungjong pauses, sticking out an arm to stop Woohyun who had been about to walk into his back. Woohyun’s about to ask him exactly what his deal is when Sungjong hisses, “Sungyeol, I think there’s a silent alarm.” 

“On it,” Sungyeol says, noisily clacking his computer keys for a few minutes (he says the sound of clicking keys makes him feel productive - Woohyun is sure he just likes to annoy the rest of them), “I don’t see it,” Sungyeol says eventually.

“Well it’s definitely there,” Sungjong sighs, pulling a phone out of his pocket to snap a picture and send it to Sungyeol, “See?”

“Hmm,” Sungyeol says thoughtfully, the clacking sound resuming.

“This is what you get for asking for a challenge,” Sunggyu says sarcastically. Woohyun agrees but for obvious reasons he was never going to say as much. 

“Okay, I’ve got it, it’s on the same server as the light switches,” Sungyeol says eventually. That doesn’t make a lot of sense to Woohyun logistically  but what does he know, “I can’t hack the switchboard from here, but the good news is it should be simple hardwire if you can find the switch box.” 

“It’s your job to tell them where the switchbox is,” Sunggyu points out. 

“Oh yeah,” Sungyeol says, “okay, so just follow my lead.”

It takes twenty minutes, longer than any of them would have liked, but eventually under Sungyeol’s instructions they find the switchbox and get the silent alarm disarmed. That’s twenty minutes they’ve wasted and twenty minutes they’re not going to have in the archive, but there’s not much they can do about that. 

Once the alarm is disabled it takes Sungjong all of five minutes to get through the lock (although Woohyun has only seen him take longer once before) and they’re in. 

Honestly, it’s a little bit too easy, but Woohyun’s not going to say that because it’s tempting fate.

“Okay,” Woohyun says, rubbing his hands together once they’re in the main archives room. There are four doors off the room, “Where do we start.” 

He waits for Sungyeol’s sarcastic reply but none comes. He exchanges a look with Sungjong who frowns, “Sungyeol?”

Still there’s no reply.

Quickly they backtrack out to the hall they just came from, “Sungyeol?” Woohyun asks more frantically this time.

“What do you want?” Sungyeol asks sounding completely normal, “Chill out.” 

“You can hear us?” Woohyun asks, just to make sure. 

“Obviously I can hear you,” Sungyeol says sarcastically. Woohyun can hear the scorn in his voice and practically visualise the way that he’s rolling his eyes.

“Did you hear us before?” Sungjong asks.

“When before? I heard you picking the lock?” Sungyeol sounds slightly more suspicious now.

“Okay, Sungjong is going into the archive room, tell me if you can hear him.” Woohyun says, taking charge. For once Sungjong doesn’t argue with him and just goes back into the room, standing so Woohyun out in the hall can still see him.

“Sungyeol, can you hear me?” Sungjong says.

There’s an extended silence before Woohyun asks, “Did you hear him?”

“No,” Sungyeol says, sounding slightly more troubled, “Damn, they must have their scrambling technology on a different frequency in there. I should have figured.”  Now is not the time for Sungyeol to get into a self-pitying funk because if he does he’ll never get out of it and they really can’t afford to be dealing with that right now. 

“Can you fix it?” Sunggyu asks matter-of-factly.

“I could if I was there, it’d probably take me less time than it did to circumvent it the first time like I did for Myungsoo, but I can’t do it from here in our time frame.” Sungyeol admits with a self-deprecating sigh.

“What do they do?” Dongwoo asks in concern, “Do we pull them out?”

“If we pull them out they’re probably not going to get another chance to go in,” That’s Hoya speaking up for the first time since they’ve gone in. There must be a break in his super-secret mission, “At least not the same way we’ve gone in now.”

“It’s fine. I’ll stand in the hall, Sungjong can do what he does best,” Woohyun says, before deciding he better check that Sungjong is okay with this plan, “If that’s okay with Sungjong?”

“Fine with me,” Sungjong shrugs his shoulders. 

“Sungjong agrees,” Woohyun says, belatedly remembering that none of the rest of them can hear Sungjong currently. 

“Right,” Sunggyu says as Sungjong examines the four doors. It kind of feels like one of those dumb roleplaying games some of the kids he grew up with were so fond of, except with much higher stakes.

“Anyone have any suggestions as to which door to go for?” Woohyun asks them as Sungjong continues his observation. He’s feeling skittish, considering they really only had an hour and they’d already lost about half of that.

“It’s not the far right one, that seems to be some kind of, well I’m not sure, but there’s no electricity or power in there so I doubt it’s that one,” Sungyeol explains.  

“Two of them seems to have floor sensors,” Sungjong says from where he’s lying, ear to the floor so he can peer under one of the doors, “I’d place a bet it was one of them.”

“How are you going to open the door without setting off the sensor?” Woohyun asks curiously. He’s sure Sungjong can do it, but he’s wondering the mechanics of it, “Sungyeol?”

“I’d have to be there,” Sungyeol says reluctantly. That’s twice today he’s admitted he can’t do something, so much for SM’s security being easy to get past. 

“Easy,” Sungjong says pulling some sort of tool out of his pocket, “We just have to decide, right or left.”

“Right or left?” Woohyun echoes, mostly so the others can contribute to the decision and it’s not all on his shoulders.

“Right,” Hoya says straight away without even pausing to think about that. 

“Hoya says right,” Woohyun relays to Sungjong, looking nervously over his shoulder to make sure no one’s coming. Sungyeol has access to the cameras, so he’d probably warn them, but he’s still jumpier than he’s ever been on a job before. 

Sungjong accepts that without a word, tapping his little tool on the glass window in the door before the pane falls out. It falls forwards, into the room, but somehow Sungjong manages to stick his hand through the now empty window and catch it. Honestly Sungjong’s limbs defy physics and human biology. 

“How do you know?” Sunggyu asks suspiciously even as Sungjong gently lays the glass on the floor and squeezes his body through the small opening he’s created that by all rights he shouldn’t be able to squeeze through. 

Not for the first time Woohyun wonders if Sungjong was some kind of contortionist in a past life.

“SM have this preoccupation with the right side,” Hoya says as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world, “Which I would love to explain more but I am currently a little bit preoccupied myself,” he says before abruptly just stopping. 

Woohyun would really, really like to know what he’s up to, but right now he has more important things to worry about like the fact Sungjong is now pushing the door open for Woohyun, “A little help?” he asks.

“Okay, I’m going to help Sungjong sort through the stuff,” Woohyun tells them quietly, “I guess we’ll be radio silent for about fifteen minutes give or take,”

“Be safe,” Dongwoo tells them earnestly before Woohyun’s stepping into the room and walking towards Sungjong. 

“Is the alarm off?” Woohyun asks curiously, not wanting to accidentally set it off. It doesn’t help Sungjong is perched on a filing cabinet and not on the floor. 

In fact, the whole room is stacked to the brim with filling cabinets. Obviously the plan for SM is to create so much shit to sort through that whoever is breaking in gets caught in the time it takes to find the relevant documents. 

“Should be,” Sungjong says with a shrug, managing to pull the drawer in the cabinet he’s sitting on open and riffling through it, “You can find out for me.”

“Thanks for making me the guinea pig,” Woohyun rolls his eyes. It doesn’t make a difference who sets it off, if it was going to be set off, because they’d both be caught. 

Woohyun holds his breath as he walks into the room. Nothing seems to have been triggered, thank fuck. 

Then he sighs. 

They’ve got a lot of work to do.

 

 

♟♟♟

 

It’s Myungsoo’s last day in SM and he couldn’t be happier. 

Well he probably will be happier when the day is over, but for now he’s perfectly content. 

“You seem happy today,” Seulgi teases him towards the end of his shift, as afternoon turns to evening. 

He’s gotten used to having her around, he might even possibly miss her. He certainly understands Woohyun even more now, how someone could be working for SM and not be a bad person. Hell Sungyeol was almost part of SM and Sungyeol is (usually) one of the best people Myungsoo knows. 

He doesn’t think about it anymore because then he’s going to feel bad about taking SM down and the fact a lot of their low level ‘grunts’ are going to take a huge amount of the fall. 

“Maybe I am,” Myungsoo shrugs with a secretive little smile. It’s his last day so who cares if he catches the attention of the wrong people.

“It’s because Mr Kim complimented you today,” Seulgi bashes her elbow against Myungsoo’s shoulder conspiratorially (and painfully).

“He said, ‘well Daehyun I guess there might be a reason you’re still here’,” Myungsoo points out dryly, “I’d hardly say that’s a compliment.”

“It’s as good as coming from Mr. Kim,” Seulgi shrugs with a smile. 

Myungsoo doesn’t respond, mostly because Mr Kim comes in with a frown of thunder on his face, “We don’t pay you to sit around gossiping all day, get to it.” 

“You don’t pay us at all,” Seulgi mutters to Myungsoo under her breath before returning to her desk. 

Briefly Myungsoo wonders what has Mr Kim in such a bad mood, but then decides he really doesn’t care because it almost certainly has nothing to do with him. 

The next half hour is fairly calm as Myungsoo does his work for once, Sungyeol too busy helping Sungjong and Woohyun to do it for him.

It’s weird, the radio silence, Myungsoo thinks: that they’re able to hear him (Hoya had insisted - in case something goes wrong) but he can’t hear what anyone else is saying. Sunggyu said something about not wanting him to appear distracted but he doesn’t really understand why that matters.  

Sunggyu just does thinks weirdly, Myungsoo decides. 

Suddenly though there’s a flurry of movement. There’s an alarm blaring somewhere in the background and a huge number of people that Myungsoo has never seen before in his life swarming around the room.

“What’s happening?” He looks to Seulgi. There’s a knot in his stomach all of a sudden, sure they’ve had a couple of ‘situations’ whilst he’s been working here but none that have triggered this much activity all at once. It can’t be a coincidence this once is whilst Woohyun and Sungjong are breaking into the archives. 

“Fucked if I know,” She says looking curious. Then she grabs his arm, “Let’s find out,”

Myungsoo doesn’t even bother protesting, knowing that she’s going to go anyway. He doesn’t want to protest, he wants to find out what’s happening, if his team’s in danger. 

In the flurry of activity Seulgi and Myungsoo manage to go pretty much unnoticed as they creep towards what seems to be the centre of the activity.

Until they’re noticed by Kim Jonghyun, “What are you two doing?” he asks them in amusement. 

“Seeing if there’s anything we can do to assist, sir.” Seulgi says standing up straight and looking defiantly, “Taking initiative.”

“I see,” Jonghyun says, looking like he’s trying not to laugh at her, “Well I think Seohyun could use a set of extra hands, she’s in the red room.” 

Seulgi looks thrilled at the idea of being given something to do, so she squeezes Myungsoo’s wrist before rushing off. Myungsoo feels like Jonghyun only said that to get Myungsoo alone, but that could be his entitled sense of self-importance talking again. 

“What’s happening?” Myungsoo asks, hoping maybe Jonghyun will give him an answer.

And he does. The exact answer that Myungsoo has been dreading, “There seems to be some sort of activity at the archive, a break in or something of some sort.” Jonghyun says casually, “They’re mobilising some teams to go out, I think they’re due to leave in about ten minutes, once they’ve managed to determine what the threat is, if it’s a false alarm or not.”

“Oh,” Myungsoo says. Fucking shit. He hopes Sungyeol is listening to this. Not that anyone is close enough to do anything. No one except Myungsoo. 

“Yeah, so it’s probably best if you go home, we don’t want you getting under foot or anything,” Jonghyun says with a little wink before turning away. 

“Myungsoo,” Sungyeol says as Myungsoo is rushing from the building, “Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Can you warn Woohyun?” Myungsoo asks, not even caring that someone could be overhearing him. He knows for sure now that was his last time in SM, seeing as he’s about to blow his cover.

“I can’t,” Sungyeol says sounding extremely stressed, “They’re in an area where their comms is down.”

“Okay. I’m going to warn them,” Myungsoo says. 

“Myungsoo,” Hoya says imploringly, “Come on, please.” 

“I’m the only one who can reach them in time,” Myungsoo says, straightening his back. The archive is on the same street as the SM building, probably so it’s easy for them to get to in cases like this, “Plus I’m still technically SM as far as they’re aware so I might be able to get them out without suspicion.”

“Myungsoo,” Hoya says again before sighing, “Be careful.”

“Okay,” Sunggyu says, Myungsoo can practically visualise the way that he’s nodding, “Be careful and do not put yourself at risk.”

“I’ll be fine.” Myungsoo says, feeling braver than he has the entire time he’s been undercover. He can  _do_  something now, “perfectly fine.”

 

 

♝♝♝

 

“I don’t like that we can’t hear them,” Dongwoo says for about the fourth time in the last twenty minutes as he paces agitatedly behind Sungyeol’s chair. Sungyeol agrees with him there, but the relentless pacing is not helping anyone to concentrate. 

“I don’t like it either,” Sungyeol tells him frustratedly, flipping between the cameras in the hallway almost compulsively. As always there is no one, though Sungyeol has to keep checking and making sure he’s not watching his own footage loop by mistake, “But there’s nothing we can do and things look fine.”

He shouldn’t have opened his mouth because the next five minutes are a flurry of activity on Myungsoo’s end. 

And then, there’s the waiting. “Come on,” Dongwoo urges the little figures of Woohyun and Sungjong packing up their last box of documents they consider worth something, “Hurry up.” 

Sunggyu and Dongwoo are both peering over his shoulders anxiously, though given the situation Sungyeol can’t blame them. 

Not for the first time though he misses his big screen set ups of previous jobs, those allowed him his personal space and for everyone to be aware of everything that was going on.  

Sungyeol is trying to figure out ways of how to warn them, with only five minutes left going by the timing that Jonghyun had given them, when finally Woohyun and Sungjong emerge from the archive, arms weighed down by numerous boxes.

“Guys, SM knows something is wrong,” Sungyeol tells them as soon as they’ve stepped out and their comms work again, “You need to get out of there. Now.”

Woohyun swears and then they’re off. Sungyeol almost swears himself when they duck into a random room off the side, thinking they’ve gotten lost, but then swears for an entirely different reason when they emerge carrying two trolleys, the kind used for distributing internal mail. “Fucking geniuses.” Sunggyu says. Sungyeol has to agree.

Sungyeol has lost access to the cameras in the car park, which makes him pretty fucking worried, but luckily Woohyun keeps a running commentary as they load the van and get in.

They’ve just about escaped free when Sungjong whispers, “That guard is back. And he’s got a dozen other guards. And guns. Woohyun’s rolling down the window”

Sunggyu swears again. 

“What have you got there?” The three of them hold their breath as the guard questions Woohyun.

“Oh just some decommissioned files, redundant archives, or so I was told.” Woohyun says casually.

“Where are you taking it to?” The guard asks, not seeming that suspicious. Sungyeol’s not sure if this is a trap, he’s not been in contact with the main building or if they’re not as suspicious as Jonghyun had led Myungsoo to believe. 

 “The shredding facility,” Woohyun says, surprisingly managing to keep his cool while mumbling the name of his destination so that it could be a number of things. 

“Which facility?” The guard asks. 

“It’s either Delta Red, Sierra Hangar, or Park Drive. Give me ten seconds to confirm.” Sungyeol says. He definitely remembers reading about this somewhere amongst all the information Myungsoo had managed to get for them. He’s pulling up the information, he’s just about found it when Woohyun goes off script. 

And guesses. “Park Drive,” he bluffs.

“Now why would you be taking it there,” The guard says suspiciously. That’s followed by the sound of a dozen guns cocking.

“Fuck, Woohyun.” Sunggyu swears. Loudly. 

“They’re okay.” That’s Myungsoo’s voice, more confident and calmer than Sungyeol has heard him be before this job, “Special orders.”

Sungyeol has no clue what’s happening, fuck he’s never wanted access to a security camera or any sort of video feed more in his life than he does right now, but Sungjong whispers, “They seem to be lowering their guns. I think Myungsoo has some sort of identification that means he outranks these guys.” 

Sungyeol is just about to let out a sigh of relief when there’s a flurry of yelling.

“Stop,” Someone yells out. Sungyeol doesn’t know  _who_  it is but it’s a voice he recognises from Myungsoo’s undercover stint. His stomach sinks. 

Fuck, he’s been ribbing at Woohyun for weeks but he didn’t think he actually would fuck this up for everyone.

“What are you doing?” The voice says again. 

“Drive,” Myungsoo says. “Go Woohyun.”

“I can’t leave you,” Woohyun says. Which is good, the only thing Woohyun has done right today. 

“Woohyun. Don’t be stupid.” Myungsoo says before suddenly he’s yelling out in pain.

“Myungsoo!” That’s Hoya, speaking up for the first time. Followed by a litany of curse words. 

“Go,” Myungsoo is growling this time. 

“Woohyun, you’ve got to go.” Sunggyu says sounding tenser than Woohyun has ever heard him, “We can get Myungsoo back, we can’t get all three of you back and the evidence we  _need_  to take them down.” 

“Don’t you  _dare.”_  Hoya says, voice sounding almost frantic, if Hoya could be frantic. 

“Don’t you dare stay. I’ll be fine.” Myungsoo says, sounding winded. God Sungyeol doesn’t want to know what they’ve done to him. What they’re going to do with him. 

“I can’t,” Woohyun says sounding conflicted. Sungyeol wouldn’t want to be in his position (but he wouldn’t be in his position because this is entirely on Woohyun’s fucking shoulders).

“You can,” That’s Sungjong.

“If you don’t go now you won’t get to go,” Myungsoo says. Sungyeol doesn’t know what could possibly be happening to make the SM goons let them have this conversation but whatever it is can’t be going on much longer. 

There’s a loud sort of bang then the van engine revs. 

“Drive Woohyun,” Myungsoo shrieks hysterically, “Leave me. Go!”

Then there’s a sickening crack, the sound of a car accelerating.  

Then there’s silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry Myungsoo (but only a little bit - here on out is the fun angst stuff).
> 
> Me in early chapters: I've got to be even-handed here not show my bias too badly  
> Me now: fuck it everything is my bias bye.
> 
> I think it's probably semi-obvious at this point what I completely stole this plot from because I have no originality. Or keeping in the theme of basing the plot off real infinite MVs/Videos/Events. Let's go with that.


	15. Interlude: In violent times, you shouldn’t have to sell your soul

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I thank my beta every chapter essentially but I really mean it this time, on Friday I wasn't sure I was going to get this finished in time but she cheered me on and more importantly essentially wrote some of these scenes so essentially the last half of this chapter was coauthored. Essentially :3.
> 
> This chapter if very action heavy, which we all know is not my forte (hence why I struggled so much) so yeah, sorry about that. But! only one more chapter after this left in the interlude (and it's my favourite one) ! I'm excited :)
> 
> I don't even want to talk about how unnecessarily long this chapter is (and it was going to be longer we moved a scene to the start of next chapter)

**Interlude: In violent times, you shouldn’t have to sell your soul**

**o4.**

☆★☆

 _I don’t want your money_  
_I don’t want your crown_  
_See I’ve come to burn  
_ _Your kingdom down_

 

♙♙♙

“I cannot believe they keep so much incriminating shit here,” Woohyun sighs out loud as he pulls together the last of their boxes. There’s so much information here that they could be sorting through it for days, but his watch tells him they’ve got about fifteen minutes tops, and he wants to get out of there as soon as possible, “And so easy to get to.” 

“There must be some other sort of trick,” Sungjong mumbles, which Woohyun has been making a concerted effort not to think about.

“Or we’re just that good,” Woohyun says, but it’s empty words. He’s feeling good about this, and their ability to escape, but he’s also half convinced they’re going to come out of this room to find half a dozen SM guards with their guns pointed at them. 

“Of course we’re that good,” Sungjong scoffs, “The direct approach is probably not what most SM goons would have in mind, but I’m not going to count our eggs until we’re out of here.”

“Count our eggs,” Woohyun rolls his eyes with a scoff, could Sungjong be anymore cliché? Still they stack their boxes together and make their way out of the room.

They’ve barely stepped out into the hallway when Sungyeol’s frantic voices comes down the line “Guys, SM knows something is wrong,” Woohyun feels his blood run cold “You need to get out of there. Now.” The last bit was entirely unnecessary, the two of them weren’t intending hang around and wait to be caught, obviously.

They exchange a look before they’re racing down the hallway as fast as they can manage with their arms weighed down with boxes, the voices of Sunggyu and Sungyeol rising and falling in the background. Woohyun feels like the comms are cutting in and out now, but that could be paranoia.

At one point Sungjong ducks into a room off the side of the main corridor, Woohyun swearing as he follows behind, “What are you doing?” he asks in a panic as Sungjong puts his boxes down. 

“Well, it’s going to look awfully conspicuous if we walk out of here with archive boxes isn’t it,” Sungjong says rummaging through the stuff before he finds a mail trolley.

“Oh, oh that’s brilliant,” Woohyun breathes, putting his boxes down so he can help him. 

“Well obviously,” Sungjong says as they stack their documents into the trolley as quickly and efficiently as is humanly possible. 

The detour takes them less than five minutes and Woohyun feels way less exposed as they make their way through the hallways, but it’s still valuable time that’s lost. 

As they step back into the hallway they can hear the others again, so clearly more than one room in here has a different scrambling frequency. 

They rush out to the van, stacking their boxes in the back and letting Sunggyu know exactly what is happening as Sungyeol has apparently lost control of the camera. That’s concerning to Woohyun but he doesn’t say anything for fear Sungyeol takes it as a personal offence.

 Instead they slam the doors shut and hop into the van. All they’ve got to do is drive away and then they’re home free.

 

♘♘♘

 

Sungjong jumps into the truck next to Woohyun, almost ready to let out a sigh of relief when suddenly they’re surrounded by hordes of SM guards. And a copious amount of weapons. Fucking shit. 

Woohyun looks as panicked as Sungjong feels as he rolls down his window at the indication of the same guard as before. Sungjong clenches his fingers together, trying to fight his hard-wired reflexes that are shrieking at him to get the fuck out of there with no regard for Woohyun’s safety or the information they’re carrying.

To distract himself he keeps his voice low as possible as he gives Sungyeol and Sunggyu a running commentary, taking over from Woohyun’s previous role as he’s otherwise occupied: “That guard is back. And he’s got a dozen other guards. And guns. Woohyun’s rolling down the window.”

Sunggyu lets out one of the most creative string curse words he has ever heard, Hoya’s potty mouth notwithstanding. 

“What have you got there?” The guard asks Woohyun, looking guarded but not hostile.

“Oh just some decommissioned files, redundant archives, or so I was told.” Woohyun says casually.

“Where are you taking it?” The guard asks, not seeming that suspicious. Sungjong hopes that’s the case, that this is just a standard procedure and the guards are the bottom of the chain of command. Sungjong and Woohyun had been disguised as guards so maybe they’re all considered suspicious here.

“The shredding facility,” Woohyun says, calmly. Sungjong can see though that his legs are shaking so hard that he’s not confident Woohyun would be able to actually drive away if necessary.  

“Which facility?” The guard asks, brandishing his weapon a little higher but still not seeming overly suspicious.

“It’s either Delta Red, Sierra Hangar, or Park Drive. Give me ten seconds to confirm.” Sungyeol says, apparently about to look it up. The seconds drag on as Sungyeol madly looks for his information. The guard starts fidgeting slightly, Woohyun’s hands shaking now as well.

Sungjong can see the second that Woohyun decides to go off script but he’s not able to think up a way of how to stop him before Woohyun’s taking a stab in the dark, declaring “Park Drive.”

“Now why would you be taking it there,” The guard says suspiciously, glaring at them. Fuck. Not five seconds later every guard there is surrounding the truck, guns pointed straight at them. This is not what Sungjong signed up for and it’s a situation that he’s very rarely found himself in before. He’s not sure how to deal with it. 

“Fuck, Woohyun.” Sunggyu swears. Sungjong agrees with the sentiment entirely. 

“They’re okay.”  Suddenly Myungsoo is there, almost swaggering through the guards till he’s standing next to the head guard, he flashes the SM identification badge of his cover persona at the guard, “Special orders.” 

The guards look amongst themselves, the obvious leader surveying Myungsoo critically before he waves his hand. As he does so, the guards lower their guns. Again Sungjong decides to keep Sungyeol and the others up to date with what’s happening, whispering “They seem to be lowering their guard. I think Myungsoo has some sort of identification that means he outranks these guys.”

Clearly he spoke too soon because from the entrance to the garage a number more guards, dressed entirely differently are running towards them, “Stop,” one of them yells. Sungjong doesn’t know who the guy is but the way Myungsoo pales means he clearly does. “What are you doing?” 

“Drive,” Myungsoo says with a confidence that sits well but unexpectedly on him. “Go, Woohyun.”

“I can’t leave you,” Woohyun says as the new arrivals surround them as well. The guns are still pointed at them which is making Sungjong’s stomach turn, but for some reason they all seem to be waiting on something. Or someone. 

“Woohyun. Don’t be stupid.” Myungsoo says, before the head guard is elbowing him in the stomach. Myungsoo lets out a shriek of pain, doubling over but still looking defiant. 

“Myungsoo!” Hoya yells, practically deafening them all. He sounds panicked, the first time that Sungjong has heard him panic in a long time.

“Go,” Myungsoo growls out, winded from the blow.

“Woohyun, you’ve got to go.” Sunggyu sounds tense, like he’s making a call he doesn’t want to. They’ve got to go though because the guards are getting antsy, whatever they’re waiting for is almost here and if they don’t leave now they’re going to miss their window “We can get Myungsoo back, we can’t get all three of you back and the evidence we _need_ to take them down.”

 “Don’t you _dare.”_ That’s Hoya, hysteria evident in his voice.

“Don’t you dare stay. I’ll be fine.” Myungsoo says as someone grabs him by the hair and yanks his head back. He lets out a grunt of pain, but not a shriek this time. 

“Out of the van,” The head guard says, pointing a gun at Myungsoo’s head, “Or your friend gets it.”

“I can’t,” Woohyun says sounding conflicted. Sungjong doesn’t know if he can’t leave Myungsoo, can’t get out of the van or can’t decide what to do.

“You can,” Sungjong says imploringly. They’ve got to leave, he doesn’t want to leave Myungsoo, but if they’re going to rescue him they’re going to need everyone, there’s no way only four of them could get three of them. 

“If you don’t go now you won’t get to go,” Myungsoo says as more and more of the guns are now pointing at him (though unfortunately there are still some aimed at Sungjong and Woohyun).

There’s a bang as Myungsoo seemingly conjures a smoke grenade out of thin air (Sungjong had seen him pocket it from the head guard) and throws it on the ground. A thick plume of smoke emerges as Sungjong winds the windows up for Woohyun, causing the guards to cough and splutter. 

This is their last shot.  “Woohyun,” Sungjong says imploringly, trying to work out if he can knock Woohyun out and take control of the car himself. He doesn’t have to. 

“Drive Woohyun,” Myungsoo shrieks hysterically, “Leave me. Go!” 

Finally Woohyun starts the car as Myungsoo is clocked in the face, falling to the floor with a sickening crunch. 

Woohyun drives away in a squealing of tires not saying anything to Sungjong. There’s nothing to say. 

Sungjong ignores the tears pooling in Woohyun’s eyes and watches behind as they drive away, leaving Myungsoo behind. 

He doesn’t know how he’s going to face Hoya.

 

♘♘♘

 

No one says a word as Sungjong and Woohyun return to their base of operations. It’s eerily silent in a way the team never is, as they walk into the room, heads hanging low. The one saving grace for them is probably that Hoya hasn’t returned yet.

Woohyun makes his way to the couch in the corner of the room, already withdrawing in on himself, so Sungjong decides to follow him to show that not everyone is against him.

Besides he was with Woohyun, and even if it wasn’t his brashness that got Myungsoo taken he should show some sort of solidarity.

The room remains silent as the five of them hold their breath, waiting for Hoya to return. They’re all well aware that he’s not going to be impressed, but only Sungjong really has any frame of reference for what to expect from an angry Hoya. 

He wishes he didn’t. 

The silence drags for half an hour. Dongwoo tries, once or twice to talk about something, anything, but when no one gives him a proper response he stops. 

The longer they wait for Hoya, the higher the tension in the room rises. Sungjong thinks about saying something, demanding they start doing something useful instead of sitting on their asses waiting for Hoya whilst Myungsoo is potentially tortured, at the very least injured.  He doesn’t open his mouth though, because he knows his team and knows no one will be able to offer anything productive whilst they’re waiting.  

Eventually Hoya shows up. The air in the room seems to still as he enters, looking remarkably more composed than Sungjong expected.

That’s not a good sign, because he’s angry. The way his fists are clenched, the tightness in his shoulders, the expression on his face are all clearly broadcasting aggression.

“What happened?” He asks eventually, voice sounding so raw that it’s painful.

Woohyun hangs his head lower as everyone else exchanges looks. No one wants to be the one to explain to Hoya even though Hoya was listening on the comms and probably knows the gist.

Eventually, Sunggyu steps up as leader, “SM have Myungsoo,” he says as quiet as Sungjong has ever heard him.

“Well I gathered as much,” Hoya snaps sarcastically, “But what the fuck _happened_?” 

He’s looking right at Woohyun and Sungjong. Sungjong doesn’t want to receive Hoya’s ire, but he also feels like Hoya might take it better coming from him.

“The guards were suspicious of us trying to take things out of there. Myungsoo tried to talk us out of it and it would have worked, he was doing really well, except then the ones from his office showed up. With guns.” Sungjong explains. 

He doesn’t mention the reason that Myungsoo had to intervene was because Woohyun jumped the gun - they don’t even know that’s really the reason. For all any of them could know the guard might have known all along and was toying with them, making them think they were home free and then stopping them. 

They can’t know Woohyun waiting for Sungyeol to feed him the answer would have meant they would have gotten away free - it’s not as clean cut as that. There’s no use in assigning blame, in Sungjong’s opinion.

The others (Sungyeol) probably don’t agree, but that’s their immaturity speaking. 

Apparently Woohyun, the self-sacrificing idiot, also disagrees because he says “It’s my fault,” looking up at Hoya with the most apologetic expression Sungjong has ever seen on a person’s face.

“Oh really?” Hoya asks, stalking towards them. 

“Yes,” Woohyun says, before he starts to try and explain himself, tripping over his words in the process, “They needed to know the answer to the question about where we were taking the files and they were getting impatient and I was like 75% sure I knew the answer but I should have waited for Sungyeol. But they weren’t willing to wait they seemed like they were about to do something, so I panicked.”

It’s kind of pathetic. Sungjong wonders briefly if this is the real Woohyun finally peeking through. Weak willed and full of self-doubt, not willing to take responsibility for his actions, looking for excuses but being a martyr.

As soon as the thought enters his head he feels bad about it, knows Woohyun is just trying to explain his thought process at the time but still taking responsibility. Knows it was a combination of stress and Sungyeol’s relentless teasing that drove him to this place of self-doubt.

It mars Sungjong’s opinion of Sungyeol more than his opinion of Woohyun in all honesty.  

“Myungsoo’s gone because you _panicked_ and couldn’t wait five seconds for Sungyeol?” Hoya asks incredulously (as if he didn’t already know this).

“Yes,” Woohyun whispers. 

Hoya looks at Woohyun for a second, blinks, and then before any of them can react he yanks Woohyun to his feet by the lapels of his jacket. And punches him square in the jaw.

Sungjong is on his feet straight away not even giving it a second thought as he gets in between the two of them, gets in between Hoya and the target of his ire (later he’ll realise that’s a new thing for him - getting in the thick of something he cares about - but in the moment it’s pure instinct). 

“Stop it,” Sungjong says, pushing Hoya back with one hand and steadying Woohyun with the other, “Hyung stop it.”

Sungjong isn’t sure Hoya is going to stop, feels there’s a risk Hoya is going to lash out again and end up punching _Sungjong_ this time or something. 

“This is _your fault_ you’re right,” Hoya is practically snarling at Woohyun, “Myungsoo doesn’t deserve to suffer for your fucking stupidity, and if anything happens to him, I will hold you _personally_ responsible.” Hoya doesn’t need to make any explicit threat to what that would entail, the unspoken one hangs heavy in his words. 

Sungjong is terrified, he hasn’t seen Howon this angry since his dad was killed.  

Luckily the others seem to remember they can step in because finally Sunggyu is at Hoya’s side. He puts his hand on Hoya’s elbow and leans in to whisper something to him. Sungjong is sure, the way Hoya’s eyes flash, that he’s probably going to take offence and sock Sunggyu in the jaw as well, but surprisingly enough he doesn’t.

He continues to glare at Woohyun but steps back slowly.

Dongwoo approaches Hoya slowly from the side, broadcasting exactly what he’s doing. It’s good, Dongwoo is always the most perceptive in this kind of moment. Just like Sunggyu, he touches Hoya on the elbow, “Come on,” He says gently, pulling Hoya from the room. 

Hoya follows him, glaring daggers at Woohyun the whole way. There’s a very real sense he could break away from Dongwoo and lash out again, but thankfully he doesn’t.  

Once he’s gone there’s a sigh of relief before Sungjong pushes Woohyun back onto the couch and tuts. 

This is the last thing they need, it’s not going to help save Myungsoo, so he can only hope Dongwoo is able to talk some sense into Hoya. 

It’s a big ask.

 

 

♖♖♖

“Hoya,” Dongwoo says, once he’s managed to drag Hoya out of the living area and into the bedroom that’s technically Hoya’s even though he’s slept maybe two nights here the entire job. He knows Hoya must have let himself be pulled away. The two of them are about evenly matched for strength but Hoya is fuelled by strong emotions that would make it awfully hard to force him to do anything right now, “Calm down.”

“Calm down,” Hoya spits, pacing the length of the room, “Calm down? How the fuck am I meant to calm down when Woohyun’s fucking incompetence and ego got Myungsoo taken. By SM!” The last part is said so loudly, with a tinge of hysteria distorting his words, that the others in the living room can probably hear everything he’s saying.

“This is as much Sungyeol’s fault as Woohyun’s.” Dongwoo points out, taking a seat on the edge of the bed primly. He doesn’t think Hoya would mind, there are way more important things to be focusing on right now.

“Oh I know,” Hoya says, cracking his knuckles in what Dongwoo has quickly come to realise is a nervous habit for him, “I’d be more than happy to punch Sungyeol in the face as well,”

“That’s not what I mean,” Dongwoo says disapprovingly. He understands Hoya’s hurt but taking it out on his team members is going to do absolutely nothing but make the situation worse.

Taking their frustration out on each other with bitterness and scorn is how they found themselves in this situation to begin with.  

“Are you sure? If it’s Sungyeol’s fault as well it’s only fair that I treat him the same as Woohyun right?” Hoya asks sounding slightly unhinged. He’s not lost control or anything, Dongwoo can see it in the set of his shoulders, in the fact that Woohyun is only going to be sporting a nasty bruise as opposed to a concussion or a broken nose.  It’s still the most desperation that Dongwoo has seen from Hoya. 

“It’s all of our faults,” Dongwoo says calmly. “None of us tried to stop Sungyeol. We’re all accountable to some degree.”

Dongwoo’s not one for false equivalence. He knows they’re not as accountable as Sungyeol of course, whose harsh words led Woohyun to doubting his instincts and trying to prove himself. Not as accountable as Woohyun who let his hurt ego get the best of him, yet there’s still some degree of responsibility that they’ve got to share. 

“Do you know who _did_ try to stop him?” Hoya asks with a bitter laugh, stopping his pacing and turning to look at Dongwoo, “Myungsoo did. And look where he fucking ended up.”

Hoya looks around as if he’s seeing the room for the first time. Dongwoo can tell the moment he fully comprehends where he is because his knees buckle and he slides down the wall till he’s sitting on the floor, back against the wall.

Dongwoo gets off the bed and comes to sit next to Hoya, not touching him but close.  

“You shouldn’t have punched Woohyun.” Dongwoo repeats. Now that Hoya’s quieted he’s hopefully more willing to listen.

“I shouldn’t have, I agree.” Hoya says, not sounding particularly regretful nor defensive about it, “But I’m so angry.”

“You’re allowed to be angry.” Dongwoo says, “But punching him isn’t going to do any good.”

“Forgive me for not being in the most logical state of mind right now,” Hoya says sarcastically. The admission that he’s not thinking logically is a big one. 

“Don’t take it out on Woohyun. Don’t be Sungyeol.” Dongwoo says. He implores. Hoya knows this, Hoya is the most perceptive member of this team when it comes to some things. 

The problem is the only time Hoya abandons his logic and restraint is when Myungsoo is in danger, and Myungsoo has never been in more danger than he is right now.

“I’ll try,” Hoya admits, staring at his hands, “It’s hard though. I have to be angry.”

“Why?” Dongwoo asks, thinking he knows the answer but wanting to confirm.

“Have you ever been kidnapped?” Hoya asks him instead of answering. All of a sudden he looks so defeated that it’s painful. It was only a few days ago that Dongwoo had thought he’d never see anything more heart-breaking than Woohyun’s spirit being broken by Sungyeol, but Hoya has unfortunately proved that notion wrong, “Held against your will as leverage.”

“Yes,” Dongwoo says because he has. His captors weren’t as sadistic as he’s assuming SM is, and he’d been at their mercy for less time than has already passed for Myungsoo, but he remembers the feeling well. 

“Then you know what he’s probably going through right now,” Hoya slumps, all the fight going out of his body. The anger had clearly been a shield to keep his hurt at bay, and now it’s threatening to come spilling out. 

Dongwoo feels like Hoya’s going to try his best to keep it in until they manage to get Myungsoo back, but depending on how long that takes, he might not be able to.

“Yes,” Dongwoo nods. He’s trying not to think about it.

“Myungsoo has no training for this kind of thing,” Hoya is playing with a thick gold chain around his neck that Dongwoo had never noticed him wearing before. There’s some sort of charm on the end of the chain, but it’s in Hoya’s hand so he can’t make out what it is.“He’s been kidnapped before, but not like this.”

“We’ll get him back,” Dongwoo reassures Hoya. He knows they will, he knows Sunggyu is going to leave no stone unturned to get him back, knows Hoya would do anything. Woohyun is drowning in guilt and Sungyeol’s probably the same. They’re all motivated to get Myungsoo back. They’ll do it.

“I know,” Hoya says sounding certain, “But I’m afraid of what state he’ll be in when we do.”

Dongwoo has nothing to say to that, no empty words to return. Instead he hesitantly wraps an arm around Hoya’s shoulder because he knows Hoya isn’t the fondest of people in his personal space, especially when he’s feeling stressed (with the exception of Myungsoo, that goes without saying). 

He’s surprised then, when Hoya not only leans into the hug but attaches himself to Dongwoo in a way that’s so reminiscent of Myungsoo that Dongwoo does a double take. He doesn’t comment on it because it’s clearly what Hoya needs right now, “Myungsoo’s strong,” Dongwoo says, feeling like if Hoya is showing him weakness for what he thinks is the first time ever he’s got _try_ and reassure him, “He’ll be okay.”

“He’s the strongest person I know,” Hoya agrees, “But I don’t know if anyone is strong enough to survive SM.” 

There is nothing Dongwoo can say to that so he doesn’t, just sits with Hoya until Sungyeol comes looking for them and they have to return to the room with the others, return to where Woohyun is probably still nursing a bruised face, so they can get planning. 

It’s going to be a long night.

 

 

♔♚♔

  

Sunggyu watches carefully as Dongwoo and Hoya re-enter the main living space, making sure Hoya isn’t going to do anything else erratic or dramatic.

Woohyun is still sitting in the corner of the couch, a bag of peas that Sungyeol had managed to dig out of the freezer for him cradled to the side of his jaw. 

As soon as Hoya entered the room Woohyun had made as if to hide the peas, but Hoya had taken one look at him and scoffed, “Don’t be a martyr.” Woohyun had obediently put the peas back on his face, watching Hoya more warily than Sunggyu was. 

Sunggyu didn’t blame him. 

“Okay,” Sunggyu says once he’s sure no one else is going to start assaulting their teammates, “Obviously our number one priority is to get Myungsoo back, but we’ve also got to move quickly with the original plan before SM manages to track us down.”

Before SM manages to break Myungsoo into telling them the location of their safe house. Sunggyu doesn’t say it but they’re all on the same page if the grim faces in the room are anything to go by.

“We’ve got to split up then,” Sungyeol says, voicing exactly what Sunggyu was thinking, “Half of us get Myungsoo, half of us execute the original plan.”

“Is it wise to split up now?” Woohyun asks hesitantly. Sunggyu is surprised he still has the confidence to say anything, but isn’t surprised it’s something cautious and paranoid. 

When this is all over they’re going to need to keep an eye on Woohyun and the way he interacts with the rest of the team. (If there still is a team).

“We can’t afford not to,” Hoya says sounding so defeated. That’s not good, Hoya’s always been the strongest member of this team, the one Sunggyu relies on to be able to do what needs done. If he’s sounding defeated it doesn’t bode well for the rest of them, “Sunggyu is right, we need to move ahead with the plan in the original timeframe so we keep the upper hand over SM even if we’ve lost the element of surprise. There’s no way in hell I’m letting them keep Myungsoo a second longer though.”

Sunggyu knows that, knows that if he’d given priority to the original plan (not that he every would, he’s not actually that heartless) Hoya would have slipped off on his own as a one man rescue team. It’s safest for everyone involved to split up. 

“Plus splitting ourselves up is also splitting SM up, if we go for a rescue attempt first than those of us executing the original plan could fly under the radar a bit.” Sungyeol explains.

“The other way around,” Sunggyu says because Myungsoo is the priority here. There will be other opportunities to stop SM - not as easy or with as much of the element of surprise but other opportunities. If they don’t save Myungsoo now, well thinking about the alternative is not an option because they will save Myungsoo.  

“How are we splitting up,” Dongwoo asks. The way he’s looking at Sunggyu makes it very clear what he thinks the ‘teams’ should be. 

“Hoya is quite obviously going to get Myungsoo,” Sungjong says dryly. There was never any doubt about that.

“Which means Dongwoo is off on the regular plan, with me?” Sungyeol guesses. 

“I’ll tell you if you all shut up for half a second,” Sunggyu says with a roll of his eyes. For a second it feels just like any other planning session, but the fact his exasperation isn’t followed by a giggle from Myungsoo makes it very clear it’s not, “Sungjong, Hoya and Woohyun you’re going to get Myungsoo, the other two are with me and we’re going forward with the plan.”

It was an easy choice to make - they needed to split their hitters up and for obvious reasons Hoya was on Myungsoo duty. Sungyeol is needed for the most important part of the original plan, it hinges on him and his ability. Sunggyu wants to be in the midst of his plan, taking the risks, and someone with the ability to pick locks and get in small spaces was very useful for a rescue mission.

Woohyun was the last one left and in the interest of safety in numbers he was also on Myungsoo duty. Sunggyu may have also considered Woohyun’s desperate need to ease his guilt would serve him better on that side of the plan, but he’s not going to say that to anyone, least of all Woohyun and Dongwoo.

“Okay, so what’s the plan?” Sungjong asks, calmly. 

“Well,” Sunggyu says, laying out his big sheet of paper with the plan on the table (despite Sungyeol’s nagging nothing beats writing out a plan by hand for him), “The SM plan is the same as before, we’re just adjusting what everyone’s doing.”

“The Myungsoo plan?” Dongwoo prompts as the five of them gather around him.

“First thing is we’ve got to find out where they’re holding him,” Sunggyu says, “Sungyeol do you think you could do it?”

“Well,” Sungyeol says appraisingly, “I think the backdoor that Myungsoo got me into their system is still working but they’re probably trawling everything right now to find any trace of me so I’m not sure how long it’ll take them to find it,” 

“Well you better get started then,” Hoya says, eyebrow raised challengingly.

For the first time in his life Sungyeol doesn’t challenge an instruction that’s given to him and obliges straight away.

“Once we’ve found out where they have him,” Sunggyu says, “Then we need to be quick, but not too quick. Wait until we’ve got our part of the plan underway,”

He goes on to explain his plan in detail, confident that they can pull this off. Their resources may be stretched and they may be rushed but they’re highly motivated.

The threat of Myungsoo’s safety means that they work together, throwing ideas around and theorising in a much more cohesive way than they have in a long time.

And if when they break up to go and do the last minute planning bits and pieces they need to do, Hoya bumps into Woohyun’s shoulder, well Sunggyu isn’t sure if it’s meant to be aggressive or a peace gesture.

He hopes it’s the former but when it comes to Hoya, no one really knows except Myungsoo.

 

 

♟♟♟

Myungsoo really, really wants to go home.

No matter how many times he’s done it, the whole being held hostage thing never gets more enjoyable or less stressful.

Strange that.

Still there’s something extra ominous about being held captive by SM. 

Maybe it’s because he’s spent the past month undercover there and knows what they’re capable of. Fears that his punishment will be so much worse because he’d infiltrated them and made a fool out of them and they’ll want some kind of retribution.

Maybe it’s because this time, he’s not sure he’s the team’s top priority. Not sure he wants to be their top priority, not if it means all this work they’ve done over the last month goes to waste - not if it means him being kidnapped results in nothing.

He can take the pain; he couldn’t take the guilt. 

The pain though, hasn’t been fun. They haven’t tortured him yet, just roughed him up a bit (a lot) when they first dragged him away. Dragged him away from his team and the part of the city he knew. 

Blindfolded him and chucked him in the back of the van and driven him somewhere. Ripped the comms from his ears and stomped on his hands with their steel toed boots and knocked him round the head once or twice.

Since then though, he’s been sitting, tied to this chair for what feels like hours, days. It could have been forever; it could have been no time at all.

He’s retreated into his head, into sweet memories and love and things he can sometimes still barely believe he has.

It’s a long, long way from kneeling on the carpet of that dindgy apartment thinking he was about to die. Then he’d welcomed it, now the thought of dying - of leaving Howon alone to fend for himself - terrifies him more than anything. 

He knows though, knows the happy memories are going to do nothing to protect him once their kind of torture starts - the physical torture - when they realise the isolation torture that they’re trying to unnerve him with is actually his sanctuary.

Eventually they realise it, when the door to the room he’s being held in opens. When an important looking man with a gun walks in, flanked by guards. 

It’s okay though, he thinks as some big burly look guard slams the door down shut behind him, because they’ll come and get him. Howon will come and get him.

He knows they will. He believes.

He just hopes they show up before he ends up with permanent injuries or something.

(At least when this is all over he’ll be able to tell Sungyeol that he wasn’t exaggerating his fears of what SM would do to him. It’s the small things in life)

  

 

 

♖♖♖

Dongwoo waits until everyone else has filtered out to do their final preparatory bits and pieces before he approaches Sungyeol.  

Sungyeol is exactly where he’s been for the last four hours, attached at the fingers to his computer’s keyboard, hunched at an angle that Dongwoo knows from experience has got to be hurting him.

Sungyeol doesn’t look up as he hears Dongwoo approaching, simply says, “If you’ve come to tell me that this is my fault, don’t waste your breath, I know, I’m aware but there’s nothing I can do about it at the moment so I’m not going to let myself get consumed by guilt.”

Dongwoo doesn’t respond to that as he presses the heat pack he’d taken from his room and warmed up against Sungyeol’s neck gently.

All the tension bleeds out of Sungyeol as he looks up at Dongwoo with a frown, as if he’s confused why Dongwoo is doing something for him, “Thank you.”

“Don’t hurt yourself as self punishment,” Dongwoo tells him. He’s not entirely sure that’s what Sungyeol is doing because he has the habit of getting so absorbed in his work that he forgets to look after himself. The words he’d said to Dongwoo though, mean he has to say just to make sure.

“I’m not hurting myself, it’s just a bit of a sore back, it’s a hazard of being a hacker.” Sungyeol brushes away, returning his attention to the screen. 

Dongwoo doesn’t feel offended, knows that’s how Sungyeol works at the best of times let alone when he’s searching for the location of his kidnapped best friend.

Dongwoo doesn’t say anything, instead sitting on the table next to Sungyeol’s laptop so he can keep an eye on him. Sungjong has Woohyun and Sunggyu has an eye on Hoya but he thinks they’ve probably forgotten Sungyeol is hurting as much as anyone right now.  

Isolating any one of them is going to lead to bad things.

“What are you doing?” Sungyeol eventually asks, sounding distracted though it’s probably because he has 10% of his mind on this conversation and the rest of it sifting through information on the computer.

“Keeping you company,” Dongwoo says simply because that’s what he’s doing. He’s not babysitting, or comforting, or blaming, he’s just making sure that Sungyeol is alright by _being_ there. 

Sungyeol looks floored, like Dongwoo has said something unbearably nice to him or something instead of simply stating a fact. “Thank you,” he says again before returning to his work, sitting up just a little bit straighter. 

It takes barely twenty minutes after that until Sungyeol is letting out a whoop, “I’ve got him. I’ve found him,” he says, jumping out of his chair and knocking Dongwoo over with an enthusiastic hug, “I know where they’re keeping him.” 

Dongwoo laughs at the sheer exuberance of it (others might say this is no time to laugh but Dongwoo thinks that feeling sad and miserable and having a determined purpose don’t have to be mutually exclusive) as Sungyeol pulls back babbling, “Okay I need to tell Hoya, and Sunggyu and get the blueprints to make a plan this is good. We can do this. We can get him back,” Sungyeol says. 

Dongwoo knows that Sungyeol’s not listening anymore but he smiles and echoes his words none the less, “We’ll get him back.”

If they’re all as motivated as Sungyeol is (and quite obviously they are) there’s nothing they can’t do.

 

 

 

♔♚♔ 

Whilst everyone is obviously worried about Myungsoo, there is work that needs to be done to get their plan to the place it needs to be. 

The boxes that Woohyun and Sungjong have stolen need examined, and though they’d been stolen at the same time Myungsoo had been taken (an exchange no one could have predicted they’d have to make Sunggyu thinks without amusement) it feels like a lifetime longer ago to Sunggyu.

Sungyeol is looking for where they’re holding Myungsoo though, and there’s not much they can do on that front until Sungyeol finds him, which means that their energy would be best spent on the ‘taking down SM’ part of the plan.

With Sungyeol working and Dongwoo staying to keep an eye on him, Sunggyu herds Sungjong and Woohyun with their huge boxes into the building’s gym, fairly certain it’s going to be empty at this time of night.

The reason they’re in the gym of course is because someone needs to keep an eye on Hoya, and said man is currently trying to beat the shit out of the punching bag.

“Should we not stop him?” Woohyun asks as the three of them dump the boxes in the corner of the room furthest from Hoya.  

“I wouldn’t recommend getting close,” Sungjong says dryly as he locks the door behind them - better safe than sorry, “Unless you want a matching bruise on the other side of your face.”

His words are highlighted by the fact Woohyun still has his bag of peas clutched to his face.

“Well symmetry is beauty,” Woohyun says sarcastically as he drops himself cross legged to the floor. 

“You have a long way to go to be beautiful.” Sungjong snarks right back as he sits down next to Woohyun.

It’s interesting, Sunggyu thinks, how hard Sungjong is snarking at Woohyun considering how careful all of them had been around Woohyun lately, not wanting to set him off because they figured Sungyeol was being bad enough. Maybe that was the wrong approach to take, maybe the gentle snarking avoiding pressure points would have made Woohyun feel more normal. 

It’s too late to think on it now, but Sungjong’s method seems to be getting Woohyun to loosen up slightly so Sunggyu doesn’t comment on it.  

Instead he sighs looking at his two team members on the floor, he really should have expected sitting on the floor when he chose the gym as their place of work (Hoya can’t have a productive stress relief like baking or knitting of course it has to be violence and anger). 

“Okay,” Sungjong says opening the box in front of him, “We basically tried to get anything we thought could be vaguely useful,”

“But our problem was you were very _vague_ yourself,” Woohyun cuts in with a little playful glare at Sunggyu, “So we just grabbed a lot.”

“I don’t know what we’re looking for,” Sunggyu tells them honestly. There’d better be _something_ useful here though or this will all be for naught (and if Myungsoo is gone but they didn’t even get anything of use, he doesn’t know if Hoya will keep his anger directed at inanimate objects), “But I’m sure we’ll know when we find it.” 

“Reassuring,” Sungjong says dryly before they all get stuck in, silence falling. 

Every now and then Sungjong and Woohyun will show him something to get his opinion on it, and there’s some interesting stuff, some juicy stuff, not nothing Sunggyu is convinced is that one big scandal they need to pull everything together. 

The hours pass, Hoya keeps at his assault of the punching bag and Sunggyu gets more concerned about him. 

“He’s going to exhaust himself and be no use when we actually need him,” Woohyun whispers to the Sunggyu and Sungjong. They all turn to look at Hoya in unison. He doesn’t seem to be flagging but Sunggyu remembers very clearly the image of Hoya being fine one second and energy failing him the next.  

“Adrenaline,” Sungjong says, as if that provides an answer of what they should do (it doesn’t).

Sunggyu is thinking he should probably take one for the team when Sungyeol bursts into the room (Sunggyu always, always forgets that Sungyeol is pretty handy at lock picking himself - one of these days he will remember), “I’ve found him,” Sungyeol says triumphantly, Dongwoo walking in behind him at a slower pace, “SM have him at their old training facility.” 

Hoya stops what he’s doing immediately and stalks over to them to listen, “That’s pretty far out.” Sunggyu says, consideringly. It doesn’t surprise him, but it does mean they’re going to be a lot further apart than he’d anticipated. 

“It makes it harder to get to, but it’s also harder for them to get back-up to it,” Hoya says in consideration, now that he’s got something to focus on (other than running himself into the ground) some of the aggression has dissipated from his posture.

“It means the comms will be spotty as well,” Sungyeol says, “Unless,”

“Yes, yes call your girl, whoever it is,” Sunggyu says waving him away, “You’ll need all the help you can get to pull this all together in the next four hours anyway.”

“Four hours?” Dongwoo says with a frown, eyeing Hoya in a way that’s not particularly subtle “Is that all?”

“That’s all,” Sunggyu says with a nod, “Even if we can’t find anything big, Sungyeol you and your friend are going to have to get creative.” 

“Wait,” Woohyun says, drawing everyone’s eyes to him. “I think I’ve got something,” He hands a stack of papers to Sunggyu.

Sunggyu scans them and tries not to smile. They’re perfect. 

Now, they just need everyone to be able to pull together for this. That will be the hardest part, Sunggyu things as Hoya directs Sungyeol out of the room with a hand to the small of his back. 

Perhaps impossible.

 

  

♙♙♙

The chaos of the climax of a plan being put into effect has always been overwhelming for Woohyun, someone who spent most of his criminal career simply walking out the door after being given whatever he wanted. Sometimes he really misses how low stress grifting art theft is in comparison. 

“Has anyone seen Sungyeol?” Sunggyu asks looking like he’s about to snap.

“I think he’s with Hoya,” Dongwoo says as he moves past Sunggyu to load the supplies the other ‘team’ will need into the back of their car, “At least, the two of them disappeared together about an hour ago?”

“What are they doing?” Sunggyu asks in annoyance, “Sungyeol needs to be here now,”

“Making friendship bracelets,” Woohyun says sarcastically, since Sungyeol isn’t around, “Getting his leg over, making a blood pact, what does it matter?”

So maybe he gets a bit snappish and sarcastic when he’s stressed can anyone blame him (Sungyeol would surely try).  

“Now a blood pact is a good idea,” Hoya’s voice comes from behind Woohyun because of course it does, it always does, “what would we be swearing to?” The words are the normal dumb joke that Hoya’s always cracking but something about them is very menacing, threatening almost. 

That could just be Woohyun overreacting, but Sungyeol clearly doesn’t think so if the way he cheekily suggests “Big Bang,” is anything to go by. 

The energy of the room _is_ weird though, Woohyun thinks as Hoya and Sungyeol get to their tasks, adding to the chaos. 

Part of it is like the way the final push of the jobs are always run, silly jokes and sarcastic comments, picking holes in Sunggyu’s plan even though they all have absolute faith in whatever he’s decided needs to be done.

No one can ignore the undercurrent of worry and fear running through the room. The others keep glancing at Woohyun, he’s sure they’re checking the bruise on his face and making sure he’s not about to snap in equal parts.

Hoya’s hands are bruised as well, someone has wrapped them for him, but Woohyun is sure those will come off soon. At the very least be stained with blood that’s not his own. It’s not his hands that show how highly strung Hoya is, it’s the set of his shoulders, the way he bristles when anyone steps too close. 

“How did getting the girl you know involved go?” Sunggyu is asking Sungyeol.

“Good, she helped me sort through some stuff, put together the files we’re going to need, she’ll be on the internet later. I’ve also patched her into the comms so she can help Hoya’s team.” Sungyeol explains not looking up from his laptop.

“You’ve patched her into the rescue team?” Sunggyu asks with a frown. Woohyun agrees with Sunggyu’s hesitance. 

“Look if you want someone to be able to disable alarms, open locked doors, all those things I do for you guys that you take for granted for them then it’s going to be her because I _cannot_ concentrate on your plan and do that for them,” Sungyeol says crossing his arms over his chest and looking up at Sunggyu. 

“As long as you trust her,” Sunggyu eventually says. 

“With my life,” Sungyeol says adamantly. More than he’d ever say about Woohyun. 

Woohyun ignores the hollow feeling in his chest as he walks over to Sungjong and Hoya. They’ve got more important things to focus on.

 

♖♖♖

 

“Okay,” Sunggyu is saying for what feels like the twelfth time, addressing the three on the Myungsoo rescue mission, “So, the plan is,” 

Dongwoo jumps in before Sunggyu can finish, because by the way Hoya’s hand is clenching and unclenching at his side, he doesn’t want to hear this again. 

“Beat everyone up, save Myungsoo,” Dongwoo says to Sunggyu, “They know.” 

“It’s a bit more complicated than that,” Sunggyu argues with Dongwoo. Dongwoo flicks his eyes towards Hoya, then back to Sunggyu, trying to send a message. It’s not subtle and Hoya invariably sees it, but if it gets Sunggyu to let them go then it doesn’t really matter. 

“Okay, okay,” Sunggyu concedes with a nod of his head. That’s new, “Be careful,” he says addressing the three of them.

“I think you guys are the ones that need to be careful,” Sungjong says with a wry smile, “All things considered.”

“Everyone needs to be careful,” Dongwoo jumps in because they all do. These are high stakes and a dangerous plan and SM already has one of them, not need to give them any more leverage. 

“I think it’s SM that needs to be careful,” Sungyeol mutters under his breath looking at Hoya. He’s probably not wrong, but the real danger here is always going to be Hoya getting too absorbed in his rescue mission. It’s probably the real reason Sunggyu has sent Sungjong with Hoya.  

Hoya is clearly getting antsy, and honestly Dongwoo is feeling the same because Sunggyu nods, “Right, we’re going now, we’re going. Be safe. Be careful,” He says strongly before adding, softer, “Get him back.” 

Hoya nods briskly before striding off towards their van, Sungjong and Woohyun following at a more sedate pace behind him. 

“Do you think they’ll be okay?” Dongwoo asks Sunggyu worriedly, as they head towards their own van. Hoya can more than hold his own, and Sungjong is a sneaky son of a bitch, but Dongwoo is still worried for them. 

“They’ll be fine,” Sunggyu says with more conviction than he’s feeling (Dongwoo doesn’t know why Sunggyu bothers lying to him anymore - though maybe it’s not so much lying as trying to convince himself).

“Everyone will be fine,” Dongwoo says with a little nod. Positive thinking never hurt anyone, they probably all could have done with some positive thinking the last few weeks.  

“Right,” Sunggyu says with a nod as he unlocks the van before looking over his shoulder, “Where’s Sungyeol?” He asks, as if he hadn’t noticed Sungyeol wasn’t with them. 

“Right there,” Dongwoo says, pointing over the other side of the room, towards the other van. Sungjong and Woohyun have the back thrown open as they’re checking something. Or giving the other two privacy. 

Because Sungyeol is leaning down whispering something that looks quite urgent to Hoya, if the way he’s gripping Hoya’s arm is any indication. 

They watch for a couple of seconds, Sunggyu growing impatient but clearly not wanting to interrupt them before finally Hoya nods and Sungyeol steps away.

“Oi, Lee Sungyeol,” Sunggyu hollers, using that voice projecting skill he hadn’t really put to use since they left Woollim, “Get your ass over here.” 

Hoya claps Sungyeol on the arm grudgingly once, before turning away. Sungyeol says something, they don’t catch what, before he’s jogging back over to them and jumping into the back of the van. 

A couple of seconds later he sticks his head out, “Well hurry up old men, what are you waiting for? SM isn’t going to sabotage itself,” He says cheekily. It’s a forced cheekiness, he’s clearly not really feeling it, but Dongwoo appreciates the effort.

Sunggyu clearly doesn’t though, if the way he slams the door on Sungyeol’s face is any indication. 

 

 

 

♙♙♙

“Hi,” The strong girlish voice says over the comms startling all of them (except Hoya), once Woohyun’s driven out of the garage “Sungyeol Oppa asked me to help you guys, and this is going to look killer on my resume so consider me your Sungyeol but prettier and less stubborn.”

“I don’t suppose you’re going to tell us your name?” Sungjong asks wryly, recovering his composure very quickly. 

“Nope,” The girl says with a laugh, “It’s okay though because Sungyeol didn’t tell me any of your names. We’re all on even footing here.” 

“That’s reassuring,” Hoya says dryly from where he’s sitting in the back of the van, a number of guns and weapons spread out around him. He’s been compulsively cleaning them all afternoon - once he’d stopped his assault on the punching bag.  

“Look, I know you want to get your friend back okay so I’ll do anything I can to help you, and I can do a lot, so please be kind to me.” The girl says (Woohyun really wishes she’d given them some name to go on because it feels decidedly odd mentally referring to her as ‘the girl’) giving Hoya the most cheerful reprimand that Woohyun has ever heard. 

“Okay,” Hoya says with a shrug ending the conversation.  

The rest of the drive to the facility where they have Myungsoo is unusually quiet, and decidedly unsettling. Any other mission Hoya would be cracking terrible jokes, and Sungyeol would be responding sarcastically on the comms, Sungjong rolling his eyes and pretending to be so much more mature than them, as if he wasn’t Hoya’s worse partner in crime.

Myungsoo would be giggling at everything, looking at Hoya like he hung the stars. 

Maybe that’s why Hoya chooses not to say anything, because that would be a moment when the absence of Myungsoo is the most glaring. 

Woohyun is glad he has the driving to focus on because he’d have surely gone mad (or worse tried to fill the silence) without it.

Eventually though, they arrive at the facility.

Then, it’s game time. 

 

 

♔♚♔

Sunggyu hates the part of the plan where he doesn’t have anything to do. Sure the others usually tease him about how his favourite kinds of plans are the kind where he’s not doing anything, but that’s not true. Sunggyu usually has _something_ to do, whether it be monitoring the situation, weighing variables in his head, or setting the next part of the plan up.

Right now though, as Dongwoo drives and Sungyeol sits in the back of the van frowning in concentration as he works through the computers he’s got set up there (It’s almost as impressive as his usual base set up - Sunggyu doesn’t know how he does it in the van or what powers it - he doesn’t want to know).

“Are you almost done Sungyeol?” Sunggyu asks, because he’s not sure if Sungyeol is going to need more time, if he needs Dongwoo to stall or take a longer route.

“Well, almost.” Sungyeol says sounding frustrated, “This would be a fuck load easier if _somebody_ stopped driving like a fucking crazy person though,” he adds.

As he’s finished saying the words Dongwoo swerves sharply to the side, causing Sungyeol to lurch forward suddenly, grabbing onto his keyboard to prevent his head smashing into the computer screen. The smile on Dongwoo’s face indicates that it’s probably not an accident.

Still despite Dongwoo’s ‘crazy’ driving it’s not five minutes later than Sungyeol looks up with a smile, “Okay, we’re ready to go.” 

Sunggyu smiles back. Excellent. “Comms working?” He asks. 

“Yes,” Sungyeol says with a nod before his face twists, “I don’t like that the others aren’t on the comms though.” 

“You’re the one that said it was too far away, too much distance.” Sunggyu reminds him. It probably would have been a distraction as well, considering they’re doing two very different things. Sunggyu understands where he’s coming from, he doesn’t like the radio silence, doesn’t like the fact the others’ plan could be going up in smoke or a hail of bullets and they’d never know. 

“Plus they have phones,” Dongwoo reminds them cheerfully. How he can even pretend to be this cheerful in situations like this Sunggyu has not ever been able to figure out, even after the years they’ve been walking together.

“It’s kind of insulting you comparing my effective, long distance, _inconspicuous_ state-of-the-art comm system to a mobile phone,” Sungyeol says haughtily, “SM could spot a phone a mile away, probably intercept the signal, listen to everything we’re saying.”

 “Well a mobile phone is a lot less conspicuous than a Walkie Talkie, or something,” Dongwoo says sensibly as he pulls their van into the underground carpark. The one small mercy, is the fact their target is a public building - the car park underneath it is a free space and so there’s no one stopping them getting in. 

The bad thing about it is, “Well, can’t hack it from here,” Sungyeol says with a sigh. 

“That’s what we expected.” Sunggyu points out, because it is. If it wasn’t this plan could have been done with just two of them. “There’s no way one of the biggest broadcasters in this country would have had security that lax.” 

“I could do it with a few days,” Sungyeol says petulantly. This whole job has been a bit of a blow to his ego - things not as easy to hack as usual (and maybe if they stop and think about it that has contributed to the lashing out at Woohyun thing). 

“We don’t have a few days,” Sunggyu says, pushing Sungyeol out of the van and following behind him, leaving Dongwoo in the car. He’ll need to follow later, “We don’t even have a few hours.”

“Ninety Minutes,” Dongwoo’s voice comes over the comms, reminding them cheerfully, “I’ll see you in there.” 

“This would be a lot easier with Sungjong,” Sungyeol says dolefully as they look up at the intimidating facade that is the broadcasting station. 

“Sungjong has more important things to do,” Sunggyu reminds him, even though he knows that Sungyeol knows that and isn’t complaining - just making a statement, “Besides you’re the one that’s always telling me that you’re the jack of all trades - now you get to prove it.”

 

♘♘♘

Once they’ve arrived at the facility where Myungsoo is being held, Sungjong goes in first. He sneaks in through the mail chute to get a general sense of the situation - to see how many guards if any there are in there, or any other unexpected surprises that wouldn’t show up on the blueprints.

Woohyun and Hoya are left alone in the van, so Sungjong isn’t too sure this plan has been thought through clearly. They’re completely silent, which is unusual for both of them, but it also means no one is physically assaulting anyone so that probably counts as a win. 

Sungjong doesn’t think about them as he manages to stick his head through the mail chute opening to check for people.

The room is empty, as The Girl had told him it would be, so he squeezes himself out of the small space (he makes a mental note that vents are really not as bad as he always thinks them to be - though he’d never say that to one of the other guys).

“What do I say when I need to talk to you?” Sungjong asks the girl as he grabs a random mail cart - why a semi-warehouse such as this needs a mail room he doesn’t know but he counts their blessings because it’s such an easy access way, “I can’t just call you girl,”

“You can call me Sungyeol, if you like.” She says cheekily.

“I rather think Sungjong wouldn’t like to.” Woohyun says dryly, implication clear in his voice. He’s very lucky Sungjong is nowhere near him right now. 

“Well, you can call me J then,” The girl, J, says.

“Here we go again with the single letter codenames,” Woohyun mutters under his breath. There’s an awkward pause, since the other person with the single letter codename is currently being held in this very building, before Sungjong shrugs it off.

“Is the coast clear?” He asks J.

“Yes,” she confirms sounding much more serious now that they’re actually underway (Sungjong wonders where exactly she is - she’s got to be somewhere nearby to be monitoring them like this). 

“Okay,” Sungjong says, pushing the mail cart out in front of him, “Let’s do this.”

He wanders the halls for a good twenty minutes, taking note of exactly where the guards are and the formations they’re using (though hopefully Sunggyu’s group will draw at least some of them away) before making his way down to the side entrance he’ll be letting Hoya and Woohyun in through.

J talks him through disarming the door quickly and efficiently, no snark or ego involved like Sungjong has come to expect from Sungyeol, “If you’re ever looking for a job,” Sungjong jokes quietly as he pushes the door open to admit a stony faced Hoya, Woohyun trailing behind him, “I’m sure we have an opening. Sungyeol is replaceable.” 

“Oh I’m not nearly as good as him,” J says with a laugh as the three of them make their way to their starting position, “But I’ll tell him you said that.”

Sungjong shrugs as the three of them climb the stairwell before stopping. They’re in position now. There’s nothing they can do but wait for Dongwoo to contact them.

 

♔♚♔

“I don’t like that the plan is walking in through the front door,” Sungyeol whispers to Sunggyu out of the corner of his mouth as they walk into the lobby of the broadcasting station.

Frenzied people rush past them constantly, bumping into each other and in some cases furniture as they hurriedly tap away on phones. No one gives them a second glance.

“Pretty people walk in here all the time, as long as you’ve got that swipe card to work properly, we won’t have a problem.” Sunggyu tells him with a roll of his eyes, pushing gently on Sungyeol’s elbow to get him walking.  

“Don’t think I didn’t notice you called me pretty,” Sungyeol hisses as they approach the swipe card turntable to let them into the deeper part of the lobby, “and don’t think that will distract me from the fact that you have so little faith in my skills.” 

“If I didn’t have faith in your skill would I be in here with you right now?” Sunggyu asks him rhetorically. It doesn’t stop him holding his breath as Sungyeol swipes through. Unsurprisingly, there’s no problem.  

“No, probably not,” Sungyeol concedes as they make their way to the elevators, “In fact I’m surprised you’re here at all not sitting on your butt safely away from the action.”

Sunggyu knows that this is just Sungyeol trying to cope and keep a sense of normalcy. It’s the only reason he hasn’t slapped him in the back of the head - that and the fact it would draw attention to them. 

Instead they stand in silence as they travel up to the floor they’re looking for. It’s weird, not having someone monitoring the security cameras on the comms, it’s an advantage they’d all gotten used to but they manage to make it to the control room without anyone paying any notice to them.

The benefits, Sunggyu supposes, of SM having such important and high profile connections is the fact they can’t guard those places like they can their own headquarters.  

When Sungyeol pushes open the door to the security room, there are only three people in there.

Sunggyu watches on from the corridor, just out of sight of the guards, “Hi,” Sungyeol says with a nervous little smile, “Is this the broadcasting room?”

“No,” the security guard says. He doesn’t look too bothered though, “This is the security booth, it was the old broadcasting studio way back when, the sign’s never been taken off the door, easy mistake to make.” 

“Where is the broadcasting room?” Sungyeol asks with a confused cock of his head.

“Oh, I’ll show you,” The guard says, stepping out of the room.  

That’s when he spots Sunggyu. He doesn’t look too suspicious honestly, more confused, “Are both of you l-“ he doesn’t get to finish the though before Sunggyu is pulling a taser out of his bag. 

The guard goes down, not out though Sunggyu didn’t expect him to. He doesn’t need these security guards to be unconscious - just unable to stop them or raise the alarm. 

When he’s sure that the man is down he looks for Sungyeol just in time to see him punching the third guard under the chin, the second one already unconscious on the floor. 

“Why do you have a taser?” Sungyeol asks him, hurrying over so they can drag the groaning guard back into the room and out of the hallway to avoid suspicion.

“Since when have you had ninja knock out skills?” Sunggyu asks straight back as he locks the door behind them. Sungyeol gets to work restraining the two guards before they start to wake up, though Sunggyu thinks even if they do wake up they won’t be much use.

“Hoya’s been giving me tips,” Sungyeol shrugs as if that’s no big deal. It really is a big deal, especially since Sungyeol makes it known, loudly, how much he hates fighting and the gym.

Sunggyu rolls his eyes and doesn’t push it, taking over restraining the guards as Sungyeol takes a seat at the monitors and starts to hack his way into the main broadcasting station. 

Now, they just need to wait for Dongwoo. 

 

♖♖♖

Dongwoo waits nervously in the van as Sungyeol and Sunggyu go off to execute their part of the plan. Waiting is always the worst part, and waiting right now, with nothing to do is perhaps worse. Dongwoo likes being in action, he likes moving. 

He doesn’t like waiting. 

He waits what seems like forever but is probably only twenty minutes until Sungyeol and Sunggyu are in, tries not to bite at his finger nails because that’s a habit he was meant to have let go.  

Eventually though he hears Sungyeol talking to the guards in the station. That’s his cue.

He slinks out of the van and sticks his hands in his pockets, nonchalantly heading towards the small fenced off area of the car park he’d noticed when he first pulled in. There is some sort of construction work going on there, from the looks of it a pipe seems to have ruptured or leaked near one of the maintenance entrances. He bites down on his lower lip to repress a smile as he takes in the sight of the contractors lured away from the site by a pimply teenager bringing them a complimentary pizza, ‘courtesy of SM for their hard work’, and swipes the delivery app closed on his phone. 

It’s only a matter of seconds before Dongwoo makes good use of the discarded acetylene torch and some stacked sheets of plywood to start a small but fiercely burning fire, black smoke curling in thick tendrils from the miscellaneous plastic debris on the floor.

As the chaos unfolds, Dongwoo lowers his cap over his head and slips in through the service entrance. If anyone notices the janitor going the opposite way to the carnage and mess, no one says anything. 

Dongwoo hums cheerfully as he makes his way towards the server room, making sure to remain as inconspicuous as possible - he doesn’t have to do much considering no one pays attention to cleaners, just not be ‘as outrageously over the top as usual’ according to Sunggyu.

Once he gets to the server room, with thankfully no one around, he heads for the thermostat. 

“Okay, I’m in,” He tells Sungyeol and Sunggyu, they’ll know what he means.

“Okay, remember,” Sungyeol says, the clacking of his keys audible, “If it’s changed too quickly or drastically you’ll attract attention pretty quickly, because overheating servers is pretty fucking catastrophic.” 

“Okay,” Dongwoo says, as he fiddles with the touch screen display. He wonders what constitutes too quickly or too drastically, Sungyeol had been really quite vague on that point. 

A siren starts to blare, then the touch screen locks him out. That probably means it was too drastic.

Dongwoo slips out the way he came as feet thunder towards the room. He’s at the end of the hallway, almost away without being seen when someone spots him. Then he’s being chased. 

Dongwoo sprints down the hallway, heading for the control room where Sungyeol and Sunggyu are - very glad that it’s on the same floor all of a sudden. 

“I’m coming, and I have company,” he whispers (though whispering is kind of pointless since he’s being chased) as he approaches the hallway that his destination is in. 

He yanks open the door of the room, very glad that they’d heard him and unlocked the door, slamming it behind him and locking the door.  

Both Sungyeol and Sunggyu are looking at him with very (unnecessarily) judgemental looks on their faces.

“You couldn’t have been a little bit less conspicuous?” Sunggyu asks dryly.

Dongwoo shrug, “Oops?”

 

 

♙♙♙

It takes longer than any of them would like before they’re given the signal to go by Dongwoo (they’re probably only waiting twenty minutes but each of those minutes feels like an eternity to Woohyun with the way anything could go wrong. They could be discovered, something could go wrong with the other team. They just don’t know). 

The relief at hearing from Dongwoo isn’t just that they’re okay, it’s that they’re so close to getting to Myungsoo. It’s that Hoya now has an outlet for his frustration. It’s that finally, finally, Woohyun has the opportunity to make up for his colossal fuck up that got Myungsoo kidnapped.

Not make up for it exactly, but go some way to fix it.

Dongwoo’s barely even got the words out, having Hoya’s phone, before the latter is thundering down the stairwell, still talking to Dongwoo. 

Sungjong and Woohyun exchange a look before following after him, making sure that no SM goons are coming their way.

At the bottom of the stairwell, Hoya hangs up the phone and slips it in his pocket before straightening his shoulders, “Sungjong, you’re with me, Woohyun over by the door,” he directs without looking at either of them.

Woohyun doesn’t protest (even though he knows he usually would) instead simply following Hoya’s orders as the other two duck behind a column, just in time for the guard rotation to enter the room.

Woohyun watches as Sungjong falls out from behind the pillar, clutching his stomach and moaning as if he was in pain before collapsing theatrically to the ground.

Woohyun makes a note to give him acting lessons. Or maybe just tell Sunggyu to never give Sungjong a grifting role again, he’s not sure any amount of lessons could fix that mess.  

He’s quickly distracted from that particular train of thought however, as he observes Hoya making quick and efficient work of the guard who’d bent down to check on Sungjong. It’s ruthless, and the guard goes down in a heap, and Woohyun swears he heard some ribs crack despite the protective vest he was wearing.

He blinks and dismisses the mental image from his mind, using Hoya’s distraction as a means to take down the other guard patrolling the corridor with a vicious right hook. He channels a lot of the pent-up emotions he’d been trying to keep a lid on into it, since before Myungsoo had been kidnapped if he’s being honest with himself. 

His eyes are drawn almost magnetically back to Hoya, who’s seized the guard’s compact rifle to use as an impromptu cosh. There is a raw, almost primal feel to the way Hoya then beckons them down the corridor, and Woohyun feels the bruised skin beneath his eye twinge at the realisation their confrontation earlier could have gone much, much worse.

Despite the relentless pounding Hoya had given the punching bag earlier, it seems as though he has plenty of energy to spare, and he trades a quick glance with Sungjong, who just shrugs briefly before picking up the pace to match Hoya’s long loping strides.

Between the three of them, they make quick work of the rest of the guards, although if Woohyun is being honest, the brunt of the fighting and actual dispatching lands squarely on Hoya’s shoulders. Woohyun and Sungjong only contribute a few hits on the rare occasions Hoya hasn’t managed to subdue the opposition in a single strike.

Eventually they round a corner and hear the quiet mutter of conversation. One of the guard seems to be boasting how he’d get a commendation from his superiors from the way he ‘had the spy begging for him to stop’, although from the monosyllabic grunts he’s receiving in reply, it’s not clear how much the other guard actually believes him.

They never get to hear the rest of the conversation, as Hoya practically leaps onto the bragging guard and silences him with the flat of his hand to the windpipe, before knocking the two guards’ skulls together in one fell swoop.

Even Sungjong winces a little at that.  

“This is where I leave you I think,” J speaks up, reminding them all that she’s there. Woohyun is sure that she’d been opening doors and working security cameras for them, that’s probably why their run was so easy but she’d been so quiet about it he’d forgotten she was there, “Because I’m needed elsewhere.” 

“Thank you for your help,” Woohyun says, when it becomes obvious neither of the other two are going to say anything. 

“Anytime, it was fun,” she says before seeming to remember the context, “Despite the situation. Hit me up next time,” she says before apparently going offline (never mind the fact there’s no way to contact her if they don’t even know who she is). 

Then, Woohyun walks towards the heavy chain on the other side of the pull up door. Hoping Myungsoo is on the other side.

He doesn’t know what he’ll do if this has all been for nothing. 

Doesn’t know what Hoya will do. 

 

 

♝♝♝

“Are you almost finished?” Sunggyu asks Sungyeol for what feels like the third time in the space of a minute as he leans over Sungyeol’s shoulder.

Sungyeol fights the urge to bat him away by slapping him in the face or something, and instead takes a deep breath, “Almost. I would be quicker if you stopped breathing down my neck.”

“Well it’s not like there’s much else to do here,” Sunggyu snaps back uncharacteristically. He’s not wrong, Dongwoo is currently keeping an eye on their ‘hostages’ to make sure they don’t escape, so apart from that Sunggyu can’t do much.

“Stop asking,” Sungyeol says, though he bites back anything else that he could say. Instead he focuses on getting into the control room system without anyone noticing. 

The security booth they’re in was an old back up control room, the security guard is right, so it’s pretty easy to get in all things considered. The tricky part is getting into every system and setting it up so when the time is right he can lock the control room out.

The tricky part is doing his job whilst ignoring the loud banging on the door outside (the beauty of the whole thing is the security booth has a panic switch so intruders can’t get in. Kind of ironic it's now helping the interders).

Finally though, finally he does it, “Okay,” he tells Sunggyu, who is still hovering over his shoulder, “I’ve got it.”

“Good,” Sunggyu says, standing up straighter, “Is there a television in here?” Sunggyu asks, turning to the guards.

One of them, the poor guy that Sunggyu tazed earlier points towards the far corner where a pretty fucking ancient looking television is sitting. 

Sunggyu strides over towards it, picking up the remote and turning it on, “which channel?” he asks Sungyeol.

“That’s the thing,” Sungyeol tells Sunggyu, hardly able to believe it himself, “They’ve got this failsafe override built in, it doesn’t matter.”

“What do you mean it doesn’t matter?” Dongwoo asks, looking away from his hostages for all of ten seconds to shoot Sungyeol a puzzled look before he’s looking straight back at them. As if they can go anywhere.

“There’s this override built into their system, they can override the signal of every station in Seoul with their own,” Sungyeol explains as simply as he can. He has no idea why they would need that feature, since you’d only be able to use it once before it became pretty fucking obvious you had it, but he’s come to learn SM have a lot of scary back-up plans in place. 

“Alright, that’s good for us then,” Sunggyu says with a little smirk. Sungyeol has to admit that SM’s own fail safes being used against them is more than a little satisfying.  

“Put it live.” Sunggyu orders.

With a great deal of glee Sungyeol does just that. He takes over the control room and broadcasts their pre-recorded video. 

The TV flickers from the breakfast show to a girl sitting behind a desk, “Good Morning, we interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you an important update. Shinra Megacorp, we are calling you out,” Then it flicks to the footage of Youngmin threatening Sunggyu before the girl starts to read off a number of incriminating figures.

Sungyeol knows for a fact as they speak all the news sites are having their articles replaced with the documents and proof of SM’s dealings that Woohyun had found. That all videos on Naver are being replaced with the footage of Youngmin’s threats, that you'll be unable to go anywhere on the internet right now without seeing evidence of SM's shady dealing. Of the deep running political corruption.

Sungyeol kind of feels bad they're destabalised the whole country's Government, but he's of the firm belief a Government as corrupt as this one needs dealt with. It's why he does what he does after all.

“Your girl is good,” Sunggyu tells him with a whistle. Doesn’t Sungyeol know it (Although Sungyeol also knows she had a little help).

“You didn’t do so bad yourself,” Dongwoo adds encouragingly as if Sungyeol needs the validation (maybe he does). 

“Yeah, I did great, I’m amazing, SM can’t come back from this,” Sungyeol says getting up with a roll of his eyes. It’s probably be a couple of hours before anyone can undo the work they’ve done, get the proper news articles up (though the television will be quicker). 

By that time the media will be reporting on it themselves. 

“But, now we just have one problem,” Sungyeol says as the banging outside the room ominously stops, “We still need to get out of here.”

 

♘♘♘

Sungjong holds his breath as Woohyun pulls on the heavy chained to open the door. Part of him feels like this is going to be some kind of grand trap, that they’re going to open the door to find a swarm of SM goons standing there with weapons pointed at them. Even worse, maybe Myungsoo is there but seriously injured, or worse.

Slowly, so slowly that it’s got to be in slow motion, the door raises to reveal Myungsoo, tied to a chair, head lolling but thankfully looking very much alive. Before the door is even in line with his shoulder Hoya throws his gun onto the ground (an incredibly stupid move - it could go off and shoot any of them for fuck’s sake) and sprints into the room. 

Myungsoo manages to look up at him with unseeing eyes, still managing to project an aura of defiance as Hoya rushes to his side, but eventually (longer than Sungjong is really comfortable with) he seems to register that it’s Hoya and tries to smile, “Howon,” he whispers.

“Hey Soo,” Hoya whispers as Woohyun and Sungjong follow behind at a slower pace. Sungjong feels like he’s witnessing something disarmingly intimate, even though he’s seen the two of them be much clingier in the past. 

“You came,” Myungsoo says as if that’s a fact, he never doubted Hoya would come, “You told me before you left that you would let me escape myself next time I was kidnapped but I knew you’d come.” 

Hoya laughs in a strained, sort of wet manner, as Woohyun shuffles uncomfortably behind Sungjong. “Of course I came,” he says as he reaches out with his fingers to gently cradle Myungsoo’s head, before turning it towards him, as if to check for damage. 

They stare into each other’s eyes for so long that Woohyun looks away uncomfortably, before Hoya leans forward to brush a gentle kiss against Myungsoo’s lips. It’s so sweet, just the briefest of kisses, but Sungjong feels like he’s watching them at their rawest, their most vulnerable. 

That’s what makes him finally turn away, under the guise of checking to make sure there are no guards coming for them.  

 When he turns back, thankfully they’re just sort of staring at each other again. Which is really increasing their chances of getting caught so Sungjong walks towards them slowly, making sure to keep his steps heavy (something he really has to put effort into) so they know he’s coming.

“How about we get Myungsoo out of these ropes,” He says, hearing Woohyun following behind him uncertainly. Myungsoo nods eagerly before wincing. Working together it takes Sungjong and Hoya no time to free Myungsoo, Woohyun hovering uncomfortably in the background like he’s not sure what to do, if he’s allowed to help. 

As soon as Myungsoo is free he kind of launches himself at Hoya unsteadily. He doesn’t get far, ends up just wrapping his arms around Hoya’s waist, half in and out of the chair, but it’s so cute and typically Myungsoo that Sungjong feels the urge to laugh for the first time since Myungsoo had been taken. 

Eventually Hoya manages to gently hoist Myungsoo up though Myungsoo is still sagging, so Sungjong thinks the only thing he really can do is insert himself under Myungsoo’s other arm. Hoya could probably just carry Myungsoo out but this is quicker, and means Hoya has one hand free to pull his handgun on anyone that comes close.  

Woohyun follows close behind, picking up the guard's discared gun to make sure that no one sneaks up on them. It’s a good idea because they’re still in the middle of SM territory, even if they've taken out what feels like hundreds of guards in this warehouse, and there’s a chance someone could sneak up on them. 

Thankfully they don’t encounter anyone and make their way out to their van without incident. Woohyun scrambles in the front as Sungjong and Hoya manage to deposit Myungsoo in the back so he’s lying down, head in Hoya’s lap.

Sungjong moves to sit next to Woohyun, giving the two of them privacy as they talk quietly.

Sungjong rummages in the glove box, looking for the first aid kit that Dongwoo keeps in every car he gets his hands on. It takes him longer than it should because this place is a disorganised shit heap, but eventually he finds it.

“Here,” He hands it over to Hoya, watching carefully as Hoya coaxes Myungsoo into a sitting position before gently wiping the blood off his face. Thankfully there doesn’t seem to be any serious damage done to him anywhere, just a couple of scrapes and bruises. Head injuries bleed more than anything else, after all.

Sungjong keeps an eye on Woohyun as he drives them the very long, very roundabout way to their old hideout. Not the one they’ve been using this time, Sungjong is pretty sure they won’t be stepping foot back there anytime soon, but the one they’ve still maintained since The Chaser job.

Eventually, Myungsoo seems to fall asleep in Hoya’s lap, so Sungjong climbs through the van into the back, “He seems very out of it,” Sungjong says quietly to Hoya, making sure Woohyun can’t hear them (he doesn’t need another thing to be guilty over).

“Yeah,” Hoya agrees, running his fingers gently through Myungsoo’s hair. Of course Hoya noticed, Hoya most probably notices everything about Myungsoo.

“Is he okay?” Sungjong asks. There might not be a lot of damage on the outside, but damage on the inside is worse. 

“I want to check him over properly when we get home,” Hoya says, tightening his hand in Myungsoo’s hair so much it’s probably pulling, “But I think he’s probably just got a concussion,” 

A concussion isn’t good, Sungjong thinks, but it’s so much better than what it could be. They’ve dealt with concussions before and they all know what to do for them. 

“Other than that?” Sungjong asks so quietly he’s almost whispering, “Do you think he’s okay.”

“I hope so,” Hoya says equally as quietly. It’s not exactly the most reassuring thing, but they’ve all seen before how trauma can take a while to manifest - it took almost a week after Woohyun was drugged for it to really hit him. 

Then again, Myungsoo is strong, and as far as Sungjong knew after The Chaser Job he’d bounced back pretty quickly all things considered. 

“How about you?” Sungjong can’t help but ask. He knows Hoya hasn’t really had time to process everything, knows that now Myungsoo is safe and Hoya has time to do so it’s not going to be pretty, “Are you okay?”

“I don’t know,” Hoya admits, “I haven’t thought about it. I need to make sure Myungsoo is okay.” That self-sacrificing idiot, Sungjong shouldn’t even be surprised at this point. 

“Just, don’t bottle it up when you decide. Okay hyung,” Sungjong tells him imploringly. He knows Hoya isn’t going to want to burden Myungsoo, and that’s perfectly fine, but Sungjong hopes he talks to _someone_ even if it’s not him.

“Okay Jongie,” Hoya smiles at him, it’s a small smile, it doesn’t really crack his face or crinkle his eyes but it does seem genuine so Sungjong is glad. 

Their conversation is interrupted (though it was probably almost finished) by Woohyun pulling into the underground parking garage for their apartment complex.

Now, they’ve just got to wait and see if the others are successful, or this will all end up being for nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has been “and the moments they fall apart” thank u for visiting.
> 
> Honestly once again this plan was so horrifically silly but you know what, that's a thing now. That's what we're doing - keeping in the spirit of the show.
> 
> Shout out to the two people that sent me the clips for this, it was essentially EXACTLY what I was needing to pull the SM storyline together, although I quite obviously deviated with The Yeol/Gyu/Dongwoo plot in this chapter. (But also I NEVER want to watch this VCR AGAIN IN MY LIFE. EVER)


	16. Interlude: In violent times, you shouldn’t have to sell your soul

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We’ve finally reached the end of the interlude - it only took us 62,000 words essentially doubling the word count of this story!
> 
> Next update we'll be resuming our regularly scheduled random snippet chapters which means hopefully (for my sanity) they'll be a bit shorter.
> 
> I hope this interlude was even a fraction as fun to read as it was to write!

**Interlude: In violent times, you shouldn’t have to sell your soul**

**o5.**

☆★☆

_I stole the keys to the skies_  
_We'll leave this place for the final time_  
_No crying words, no goodbyes  
_ _Yes tonight we're burning all the tough times_

 

♝♝♝

 

In Sungyeol’s humble opinion, Sunggyu looks like he’s three seconds away from giving himself a stress aneurysm. 

“I knew the server temperature plan had too many variables, I knew it,” He’s mumbling to himself as he paces in front of the still tied guards (Sungyeol feels a bit bad about that, especially since most of them having nothing to do with SM but he’s not going to untie them on the off chance they try and take them out), “I knew it would go wrong.”

“It hasn’t gone wrong yet,” Dongwoo tells him reassuringly, “It hasn’t exactly gone  _right_  yet but it hasn’t gone wrong.”

“This is what I get for letting Sungyeol contribute to the plan, you can never rely on technology,” Sunggyu continues to mutter. Sungyeol is pretty sure he’s being dramatic for the sake of being dramatic and doesn’t actually believe what he’s saying so he doesn't take offence.

Plus technology is way more reliable than people, “This is what you get for letting Dongwoo do the technological part of the plan,” Sungyeol says, gently teasing Dongwoo.

Dongwoo shrugs, “You were very unspecific with your instructions, what is too fast? What is too high? You sure didn’t tell me,” he says serenely.  

“It’s not like they can get in here,” Sungyeol says with a sigh. Not before the plan sets into place, whether or not it takes longer than expected. 

They did get their hands on a megaphone at some point and are periodically using it to scream threats and obscenities, but how they think that’s going to encourage them to open the door Sungyeol can’t understand. 

“See, if you’d just let me hack it,” A very familiar voice filters through his comms, “You’d have been out of here hours ago.”

“We haven’t even been here for hours, noona” Sungyeol sighs in exasperation. The way Sunggyu and Dongwoo shoot him odd looks means she must be speaking through just his comms not theirs. Oops.

“Talking to a friend,” Sungyeol offers before sighing. 

“Can you speed up the process then?” He asks her tapping his fingers on the table. 

“Nah, they’re just about at capacity.” She says. He can see the shrug she’s probably doing, visualise it perfectly. “In fact I’d give it three, two, one…”

Sungyeol waits. Nothing happens. She sighs, “I was so sure-” 

Then the fire alarm goes off. 

“There we go,” Sungyeol says to Sunggyu mockingly as Dongwoo gets up on a chair and pushes the air vent open (Sungyeol hopes Sungjong doesn’t gloat too much about how useful that crawling through vents training he got them all to do was), “Pretty quick considering Dongwoo had no idea what he was doing.” 

“Thank you,” Dongwoo says as he hoists himself into the vent. 

“Good luck,” she says cheerfully before adding, “Oh and your friends got out safe, and the kidnapped cutie seems okay,”

Sungyeol lets out the breath he’d known he was holding -without realising much anxiety it was causing-, “Thanks Jihyun,” he sighs, “For doing that for us.”

“No worries, it was fun. We had fun. Sohyun is waiting for you.” She says before going quiet.  

“The others got out,” He tells them as Sunggyu follows Dongwoo into the vents. He can’t see the looks on their faces but he’s pretty sure they’re as relieved as he is (the way some of the tension leaks out of Sunggyu’s shoulders is telling).

“That’s your grand escape plan?” One of the guards crows through his loudspeaker as Sungyeol pulls himself up “A false fire alarm. You’ll have to be more creative than that.” 

“Does someone want to tell him it’s not a false alarm?” Sungyeol asks dryly. Why is he last, he could really rather do without having Sunggyu’s ass in his face.

“Nah,” Dongwoo’s laughter bounces round the vent. Sungyeol would tell him off for drawing attention but he’s pretty sure even if anyone had stuck around they wouldn’t have been able to hear over the sound of the alarm, “Let him think what he wants. He can’t say we didn’t warn him.”

It takes them barely ten minutes to get through the vents, dropping out of them in an abandoned store room (the fire makes doubly sure of it). The only person in the room is a youngish looking girl leaning against what looks like a rack of obsolete A/V transmitters.

She smiles as soon as she sees Sungyeol, “Sungyeol oppa! And Sungyeol’s friends, hi,” she waves a little, “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to get out from behind the keyboard for once.” 

“I don’t know why you’d want to be out from behind the keyboard,” Sungyeol says stretching his arms. Those vents are cramped he doesn’t know how Sungjong does it (though he is smaller for one). 

“Can we have our catch up later,” Sunggyu says dryly as the sound of running boots goes outside the corridor behind them. The fire caused by the overheating servers must have spread.

“Yes sir!” Sohyun salutes him sarcastically before gesturing to the pile of antiquated technology, “Your carriage awaits.”

Sohyun is essentially able to walk them out of the front door, right under SM’s nose: in the confusion of the fire, no one pays attention to three workmen, caps screwed tight on, disposing of a bunch of transmitters so old Sungyeol swears they predate the industrial revolution.

Then they’re home free, able to watch SM quite literally burn.

 

♖♖♖ 

Dongwoo watches with appraising eyes as Hoya gently but firmly checks Myungsoo thoroughly for injuries, other than the obvious.

There’s the nasty gash on his forehead and the split lip, he’s got bruising all over his body, and Hoya is currently checking as best he can for internal damage, though he says it doesn’t look like Myungsoo has any (Myungsoo had told them he’d only been hit in the stomach once or twice - they preferred his hands and head. He’d said it so matter of factly it broke Dongwoo’s heart, just a little. His heart’s cracked so many times on this job he’s not sure it’ll hold together - but that’s something to examine another day).

It’s interesting, watching them, Dongwoo thinks. Usually, the two of them are so ridiculously affectionate and handsy (well Myungsoo is the handsy one for the most part though Dongwoo’s finds that Hoya reaches for Myungsoo more than anyone would probably assume) but this, this is clinical.

Not just in an efficient way either. Dongwoo has seen Hoya do his quick patch ups on every member of the team before, knows that he’s usually joking and gentle with all of them. When it comes to Myungsoo though there’s something more there, like he’s looking after the most precious and fragile thing in the world.

Today, the only time he’s even looked Myungsoo in the eye was when he was checking for signs of a concussion. 

His fingers are still so, so gentle as he presses on Myungsoo’s ribs, looking for any that are out of place or fractured, but something about it just looks detached to Dongwoo. Entirely wrong for Hoya and Myungsoo. 

Thankfully Myungsoo is still too out of it, relieved at being rescued, and probably sleep-deprived to notice. Dongwoo on the other hand, can’t stop noticing.  

Wondering what it means. Hoya’s not pushing Myungsoo away is the thing: when Dongwoo had returned with Sunggyu, Sungyeol following close behind, Myungsoo had been curled into his usual spot at Hoya’s side, clutching onto Hoya’s hands so hard that his fingers had turned white. 

There’s nothing majorly wrong, Hoya’s not lost his calm controlled demeanor and yet there’s something up with him, and someone should get to the bottom of it before it becomes a major thing.

Dongwoo should talk to Hoya. He should ask him what his deal is, if there’s something he needs to talk about (tell him if he isn’t he needs to get a hold of himself because Myungsoo is going to notice). 

He should also look after Myungsoo though, make sure he’s okay. He doesn’t know which one requires more urgent attention - he can’t split himself in two. 

It’s an impossible decision, but one he doesn’t have to make because of Sungjong.

God bless Sungjong, who comes into the room as Hoya’s almost finished. “Don’t worry, I’ve got Hoya,” Sungjong whispers to him, “You look after Myungsoo.”

Dongwoo nods, relieved. Sungjong probably has a better idea of what to say to Hoya anyway. 

“Come on Myungsoo,” Dongwoo says as Hoya steps back from Myungsoo’s outreached hand. Myungsoo is frowning, but doesn’t look too hurt, as Hoya quickly steps back to sort through his first aid kit, “Let’s go get you cleaned up.”

Myungsoo looks at Hoya with a little frown, but thankfully Sungjong steps in, “Hoya-hyung, Sunggyu wants to talk to you.”

Hoya lets out a sigh of relief, ruffling Myungsoo’s hair and brushing a kiss against his cheek as he leaves (but still not making eye contact) so at least he’s not being a huge asshole about it. 

Dongwoo doesn’t think about it anymore though as Myungsoo turns towards him with huge, guileless eyes.

He’s got more important things to deal with.

 

 

♔♚♔

Myungsoo is grumpy.

Anyone with a pair of eyes can see it, though Sunggyu thinks if he’d been taken captive by an evil crime syndicate and tortured and assaulted he’d be grumpy too. 

When Myungsoo gets angry it’s a sight to behold, a steely determination and a fire not unlike Hoya’s (sometimes Sunggyu thinks he’d liked to have known them before, when their personalities hadn’t bled together and fundamentally influenced who they are). Unlike when he’s angry, when Myungsoo is grumpy he just looks like a disgruntled kitten.

Sungyeol and Dongwoo have gone off to erase any and all traces of their presence at their base for this job, Woohyun is hovering in the city listening to the general public’s reaction to this whole mess, and honestly Sunggyu has no idea where Hoya and Sungjong have disappeared to but he’s assuming they’re together. 

Myungsoo had been in his old room, left there by Dongwoo after he’d helped wash away all the grime of the day, leaving Sunggyu to monitor SNS the same way Woohyun is out monitoring what people say in public. 

It’s not long though until Myungsoo emerges from his room, clearly discontent without having a human blanket to latch onto. Sunggyu’s not entirely sure why anyone thought it was a good idea to leave him alone since Myungsoo isn’t good at being on his own at the best of times, let alone when he’s just been kidnapped and assaulted.

“Sunggyu,” Myungsoo says with a little pout on his face and a furrow between his eyes, “Where is everyone?”

“Doing bits and pieces,” Sunggyu says, feeling like Myungsoo doesn’t actually want to know what they’re doing so much as just wanting to know who’s here, “It’s just me and you.”

“I don’t want you,” Myungsoo says with a down turn to his mouth, even as he comes over to sit next to Sunggyu on the couch.

Myungsoo is grumpy and no one else is around, so Sunggyu is the one who has to deal with him.

“Well I’m all you’ve got.” Sunggyu says. This is meant to be Hoya’s area of expertise - maybe Sungyeol but he sent Sungyeol away whereas Hoya has just gone MIA, “So you’re going to have to put up with me or no one.”

“Don’t want you,” Myungsoo repeats even as he tucks himself into Sunggyu’s side and closes his eyes with a sigh, “Want Howon.”

“Well Hoya is busy,” Sunggyu says, running his fingers gently through Myungsoo’s hair. He knows Hoya checked him out for cuts and lumps under his hair when he did his very, very thorough examination, so he’s probably not going to aggravate an injury or cause Myungsoo any damage, but he still makes sure to be gentle just in case.

Myungsoo’s probably got a killer headache right now, since he can only imagine how stressed out he’d been. 

“Why is he busy,” Myungsoo says, scrunching his face up. The kitten comparison is getting more apt, but Sunggyu knows the light is probably bothering him.

“Because I needed him to do something,” Sunggyu says lying through his teeth. He’d deliberately not given Hoya a job so he could be here for Myungsoo, but the last thing that Myungsoo needs to hear is that. It is also entirely possible that Sungjong and Hoya have gone off to do something they deem important without telling Sunggyu - it wouldn’t be out of character.

“Get everyone else to do something,” Myungsoo says, still scrunching his eyes tighter, if that’s even possible.

Sunggyu sighs as he puts his laptop down, gently nudging Myungsoo off of him. Myungsoo whines and complains for all of thirty seconds before curling up on the couch, face hidden in the cushions. Sunggyu gets up with a groan, before he goes and pulls all the curtains in the room shut.

He makes a detour into the kitchen to grab a painkiller for Myungsoo’s headache and then returns to the living room, “Come on Myungsoo,” he coaxes gently, until Myungsoo is sitting up with a grumpy mutter, “Painkillers, they’ll make your head feel better.” Sunggyu says. Myungsoo takes them without complaint, swallowing them down with the water Sunggyu gives them.

Sunggyu sits back down and lets Myungsoo curl up next to him, head in his lap as he runs his fingers gently through his hair. Myungsoo relaxes, ever so slowly, and Sunggyu relaxes at the same time. He’s not very good at this looking after injured or unwell people but he’s picked up a thing or two from Dongwoo over the years.

He’s also determined to make sure Myungsoo recovers from this fully, they don’t need another incident like after the Paradise Job where Woohyun was left to deal on his own and his trauma dragged on.

That doesn’t mean Sunggyu isn’t extremely glad to hand ‘Myungsoo Duty’ back to Dongwoo and Sungyeol as soon as they return. 

After all they’re much better at it than him.

 

♘♘♘

When Sungjong first knew Hoya, back when they’d both been barely out of childhood, he was always the kind of person that ran from his problems. Although, Sungjong thinks appraisingly, perhaps that’s not the most accurate description, maybe he should say that he was the kind of person that ignored his problems.

Being with Myungsoo has done him a lot of good, Sungjong is constantly surprised by how willing Hoya is to talk about ‘feelings’ these days, something Sungjong never would have dreamed possible when they were both teenagers, when Hoya was under his father’s thumb. However, there’s still a part of him that doesn’t know how to deal with severe discomfort or hurt.

When Hoya has a goal in mind, when he’s trying to get Myungsoo back, when he’s trying to take down the bad guy he manages his emotions like no one else.

When there’s no goal in mind, when it’s just talking and resolution, he falls apart. 

Usually Sungjong wouldn’t intervene, knows that’s how Howon is. He needs time to process things by himself, he needs to not be seen as vulnerable.  

This time though Myungsoo is going to need Hoya, so Hoya is going to need to snap out of his funk before Myungsoo notices. 

Hoya clearly knows that Sungjong had lied when he said Sunggyu wanted him for something, but he follows along regardless.  

Sungjong leads them up away from the apartment they used as a living space to the second apartment in the building they’d kept as a planning space. It's a studio as opposed to the proper apartment, but Sungjong knew no one else would even think about coming up here so they’d be alone. 

Sungjong is expecting that he’s going to have to coax Hoya into talking, that Hoya might refuse and he’s going to have to give him a very stern talking to. What does happen is something he’s not expecting, something he never would have imagined in 100 years.

As soon as the apartment door is shut and Hoya has sat down on the couch he turns to Sungjong, and starts crying.  

“Hyung,” Sungjong rushes over to him unsure what the fuck he’s meant to do. He’s seen Howon cry of course, once or twice. Despite the fact he doesn’t know much about what Howon got up to the years they weren’t in contact, he’s pretty confident that he can say he’s seen Howon at his most vulnerable.

But this, this is different. This is a raw, broken sob that chills Sungjong to his bone, makes him feel like this is something he should have never seen.

He has seen it though, Howon trusts him enough to show he’s hurting, he’s terrified and afraid and now he doesn’t have to keep himself together in order to get Myungsoo back he  _can’t_  keep himself together. 

If Sungjong had thought the sobbing was raw, then he doesn’t have words to describe how broken Howon is when he starts talking, words tumbling out, sounding like they’re being ripped out of his chest, leaving him hollow and broken, “Myungsoo, oh my god he almost, SM had, Myungsoo,” Hoya says before his words trail off.

Sungjong is scared. 

Howon is hurting and he doesn’t know how to help him. There’s very few things that life throws at him that Sungjong doesn’t know how to deal with but this, this certainly makes the list.

Hoya is always so so fucking strong. Sungjong knows better than anyone else (even Myungsoo he’s willing to bet) that Howon is not as strong and put together as he pretends, but he’s always, always strong enough to put on that facade. 

To be the strong one so that everyone else can have their moments of vulnerability.

The fact that he’s been pushed so far, that he’s reached the end of his endurance, that he can’t pretend anymore is terrifying.

Sungjong is pretty sure that Howon is going to start hyperventilating soon so he reaches out, places a gentle hand on his shoulder, making sure to broadcast his movements so that he doesn’t take Howon by surprise.

“Hyung,” Sungjong says imploringly, gripping onto Howon’s shoulder so tightly he’s almost certainly going to leave nail marks. He doesn’t care though, hopes that they’re able to center Howon, Hyung you need to  _breathe_.”

Howon turns to look at him, and that is infinitely worse than anything Sungjong could have imagined. There are no words in Sungjong’s vocabulary to describe how shattered Howon looks. 

“I.. I c-“ Howon starts to say before his words cut off completely, sobs turning from the choking heaving sobs to silent gasping, shaking his body but unable to produce sounds. 

Sungjong wonders helplessly if this constitutes a panic attack, wonders what you’re meant to do when someone’s hysterical. Not touch them probably, but Howon has grabbed onto his hands at some point and is squeezing them so tightly that Sungjong is pretty sure his fingers are going to be bruised tomorrow. 

Eventually, Sungjong can’t take it anymore, “Howon hyung,” He says imploringly, wondering if he’s going to have to get Myungsoo. He doesn’t want to because Myungsoo is clearly going through a lot at the moment and Howon very obviously doesn’t want to break down in front of Myungsoo. Still if anyone knows how to deal with Howon, it has to be Myungsoo.

Sungjong decides to go for honesty, it’s his approach to most things in life and it can’t make anything worse here, so eventually he whispers, “Hyung, you’re scaring me.”

As suddenly as he started (or so it feels to Sungjong) Howon takes a great heaving breath, like a desperate gasp for oxygen, and stops.  

“Myungsoo is okay,” Sungjong tells Howon, squeezing his hands back, “I promise you he’s  _okay._ ” Myungsoo isn’t okay, but there’s nothing majorly wrong with him, and he’s on the right track to being okay so Sungjong thinks he can say it.

Howon must know Myungsoo is okay, he was the one that painstakingly spent almost an hour making sure that Myungsoo had no internal injuries, but Sungjong gets the feeling he needs to hear it from someone. 

“I know,” Howon whispers, sounding hoarse and shattered. It’s not worse than the crying, nothing could be worse than the raw agony that Sungjong had just witnessed, but it’s still agonising to listen to, “He’s okay but we’re so lucky he could have been not okay, we let him get taken,” Howon says looking up at Sungjong with imploring eyes, “We let SM tear us apart from the inside and we let them take Myungsoo and he didn’t deserve that.”

“It’s not your fault,” Sungjong says strongly because he well and truly means it. There is blame to lie with them, though most of the blame goes to SM, but none of it goes to Howon. None, “It’s not your fault and you know that.” 

“We didn’t stop him,” Howon whispers. It’s a conversation they’ve all had in some form or another over the past few weeks, about Sungyeol and Woohyun and letting it get out of hand, but something about this feels different. 

He has a point, they all should have seen Woohyun was going to do something rash, but Howon has barely been around the past few weeks outside of official team business, he’s been almost single-handedly supporting Myungsoo through the stress of his undercover assignment. Someone should have said something but it never should have fallen to Howon or Myungsoo. 

Howon’s not going to listen to this logic though so Sungjong just says, “It wasn’t your fault but you did everything to get him back, you did everything you could and you got him back and he’s  _okay,”_ Sungjong says. 

The last ten minutes have been one of the most surrealist moments of his life, yet he still manages to find it in himself to be surprised when Howon folds himself up so, so small in Sungjong’s side.

Howon is not a big person, anyone can see that, but he’s broad, he’s strong and steady and has a presence that seems reassuring. That seems larger than he is.

To see his oldest friend so small, and defeated that he’s folded in on himself, folded himself into Sungjong’s side for physical contact that he only ever seeks from Myungsoo is so telling. Sungjong wraps his arms around Howon and squeezes, hoping he can offer some sort of comfort.

They sit for an age, Howon’s body still shaking with adrenaline and fear and leftover hysteria. 

Sungjong waits him out though and finally Howon speaks, or more accurately whispers. Despite this unexpected breakdown, despite everything he’s seen, Howon manages to say something that makes his blood run cold without fear. “I don’t know how to live without him.”

For anyone else it would seem like empty words, hyperbole designed to express their dedication. Howon is different though, he only says things like this when he truly means them. He jokes and he laughs, and sarcasm is his main form of armour, but right now he’s speaking in such a matter-of-fact voice Sungjong truly believes him. 

Believes if they hadn’t got to Myungsoo in time, if they’d lost him, they’d have lost Hoya too. 

For all that everyone teases Myungsoo about being dependent on Howon, Sungjong honestly feels like Howon is more dependent on Myungsoo. His words do nothing to making Sungjong worry any less. 

It’s dangerous, how much those two rely on each other, but it’s been so long that nothing will ever be able to untangle them from each other. Not even, if Howon is to be believed, death.

Sungjong has to say something though so he just pulls Howon tighter and tells him, “It’s okay, he’s okay, he’s right downstairs and you don’t have to live without him.” 

Howon continues to shudder but doesn’t say anything more.

Sungjong has never felt more helpless.

 

♖♖♖

Dongwoo is more than a little surprised to find that only Sunggyu and Myungsoo are home when he and Sungyeol get back from their errand, all signs of their stay in the apartment stripped away.  

“Where are the others?” Dongwoo asks Sunggyu who’s sitting stiffly on the couch with a dozing Myungsoo in his lap.

“Woohyun is still out,” Sunggyu says looking over his shoulder at them before wincing. His old man body has probably not moved because he’s afraid of dislodging Myungsoo and he’s paying the price, “I don’t know where Sungjong and Hoya are.”

“Are they okay?” Dongwoo asks sharply. Call him paranoid but after everything they’ve just been through he doesn’t like the idea of any of them being unaccounted for. 

“Sungjong sent me a text a little while ago and said they were fine, just needed some time,” Sunggyu says with a little shrug. That doesn’t exactly sound fine to Dongwoo, but if it means Hoya is going to work through whatever his aversion to being in Myungsoo’s presence is, he’s all for it.

“As long as they’re safe,” Dongwoo hums, as he and Sungyeol set down the few bits and pieces that had been taken from their hideout down on the kitchen table. 

“Hoya’s probably punching the shit out of something to make himself feel better,” Sungyeol snorts sarcastically. Dongwoo isn’t sure the energy that Hoya was vibrating with earlier was anger, but Sungyeol knows more about Hoya and Myungsoo than the rest of them for obvious reasons, so Dongwoo doesn’t question it.

“When’s Woohyun coming back?” Dongwoo asks, ignoring the way Sungyeol’s shoulders suddenly rise with tension. They’d talked things out, but Dongwoo knows that Sungyeol’s ego means he’s nervous about talking to Woohyun, that he’s probably not going to apologise. 

Luckily Woohyun will understand, Dongwoo is sure of it.

“Anytime now,” Sunggyu says, shifting himself uncomfortably before suddenly ceasing all motion as Myungsoo starts to stir. 

“Honestly, just kick him off,” Sungyeol says callously, though he’s the one who comes to kneel on the floor next to the couch, peering at Myungsoo carefully at him in direct contrast to his words. 

No one would ever describe Sungyeol as gentle, but anyone with a lick of sense could see the closest he ever gets to it is when Myungsoo is around.  

“How long has he been napping?” Dongwoo asks curiously, standing behind the couch and looking down at them. Myungsoo had been in his room when Dongwoo and Sungyeol left almost six hours ago, but knowing Myungsoo he wouldn’t have stayed alone for very long at all. 

“About four hours, maybe five.” Sunggyu says with a shrug. No wonder he’s uncomfortable then.

“We should probably wake him up and make him eat, give him more painkillers,” Sungyeol suggests quietly, running his fingers through Myungsoo’s hair.

“Don’t give him too many painkillers,” Dongwoo says wordily. He can’t help but worry about drugs, forever paranoid someone is going to become addicted.

Sungyeol laughs, “They’re over the counter tablets that he’s been taking for less than eight hours, I think he’ll be fine. You don’t want him to be in pain do you?”

Well Dongwoo obviously doesn’t so he nods his head in agreement.

“Hey, Kim Myungsoo,” Sungyeol says, snapping at Myungsoo so suddenly that it surprises Dongwoo. It clearly surprises Myungsoo as well because he sits bolt upright, almost knocking his head into Sunggyu’s in the process.

Even though he hasn’t knocked his head into Sunggyu’s the abrupt movement has clearly aggravated his sore head if the way he groans and clutches at his forehead is anything to go by.  

“Be careful idiot,” Sungyeol scolds him softly, as Sunggyu lets out a soft groan of relief, probably because the blood is able to flow through his legs again.  

“Do you want to eat, Myungsoo?” Dongwoo asks, mentally categorising the sparse contents of their pantry and wondering what he can make quickly and substantially for Myungsoo.

It’s why he almost misses when Myungsoo shakes his head (hissing in pain - the kid will never learn), “I’m not really hungry.”

Dongwoo frowns, wanting to tell him how bad skipping meals is (especially when feeding him properly probably hadn’t been the top of SM’s list of priorities whilst he’d been taken).

Sunggyu meets his eyes and shakes his head though so Dongwoo decides to pick his battle. He’ll just make sure that Myungsoo eats a proper dinner.

“Okay,” Sungyeol says, reaching out to help Myungsoo to his feet, “How about we get you to your room, some painkillers, your own bed. Does that sound good?” he’s asking, so quietly that Dongwoo feels like it’s not meant for him to overhear (which is stupid because it’s exactly what Sungyeol had said he was going to ask Myungsoo).

“Yes,” Myungsoo says letting Sungyeol guide him out of the room quietly.

Once they’re gone Dongwoo flops down on the couch next to Sunggyu.

“Well,” Sunggyu says with a sigh. He doesn’t say anything else but Dongwoo knows exactly what he means. 

“Yeah,” Dongwoo agrees. 

“At least we’re half way done,” Sunggyu says. Again it’s not the most articulate thing Sunggyu has ever said but Dongwoo gets him.

“The easiest half though” Dongwoo says with a sigh to match Sunggyu’s one. Sure they should be safe now, but the trauma is not going to be an easy fix.

It’s going to need addressing if they ever want to work together efficiently as a team.

“I know. But we’ll think about it tomorrow,” Sunggyu says, resting his head on Dongwoo’s shoulder.

Dongwoo can’t argue there.

 

 

♝♝♝

 

Sungyeol is more careful than he ever thought he could be as he helps Myungsoo back to his bedroom. Myungsoo is clinging to Sungyeol so tightly that he keeps tripping over Sungyeol’s feet like the clumsy kid he really is.

Sungyeol is pretty sure he’s not doing it because he can’t walk on his own but because he is desperate for human content, for physical affection to reassure himself he’s back with the team and safe, not still in SM's clutches.

Eventually  he manages to deposit Myungsoo on his bed, without either of them falling over or walking into a piece of furniture. Sungyeol counts it as a win. 

Myungsoo honest-to-god whines when Sungyeol steps away from him, but Sungyeol just ignores him and shakes his head, “How’s your head?” He asks instead, rummaging through Hoya’s stuff looking for the medical supply bag he keeps everywhere. 

“Sore,” Myungsoo says still whining. Sungyeol supposes he could forgive him for that, all things considered, “Really sore, but not the sorest it’s ever been.”

“That’s good I suppose,” Sungyeol says distractedly, still trying to find the fucking bag. Eventually he finds it, tucked into the corner of Hoya’s personal bag. “Here, take these,” Sungyeol says, handing them to Myungsoo. 

Dry swallowing them probably isn’t the best idea (his grandmother’s voice rings through his head telling him that the pills will get stuck in his oesophagus if he doesn’t take them with water - he never did find out if that was true or an old wives tale but it’s been stuck in his head for years) but Sungyeol is sure Myungsoo wouldn’t take too kindly to being left alone even if Sungyeol was just going to grab him a glass of water. 

“Are you going to be honest with me Yeol?” Myungsoo asks, once he’s taken the pills and Sungyeol has settled next to him on the bed. They’re lying side by side, staring up at the ceiling because honestly Myungsoo looks like the act of sitting up is strenuous enough to make him pass out at the moment.

“Am I never not?” Sungyeol asks. Sungyeol is a lot of things, but he can count the number of times he’s lied to people he cares about on one hand. 

“What did Howon do to Woohyun?” Myungsoo asks. It shouldn’t surprise Sungyeol that Myungsoo had noticed, the air between the two of them had been so extremely awkward since the incident yesterday, yet it does. Maybe because he thought Myungsoo was more distracted by other things, maybe because Woohyun has been out on an errand for Sunggyu most of the day. Maybe he’s still just falling into the trap of underestimating Myungsoo as all of them have the unfortunate habit of doing. 

Sungyeol is pretty sure the others won’t want him answering Myungsoo’s question. They don’t want to stress or upset Myungsoo, or show him how much they fell apart in the brief few hours he was gone. Sungyeol thinks they’re all stupid.

“Oh, he punched him,” Sungyeol says as nonchalantly as he can manage. He doesn’t think that Woohyun deserved it - he’s not that much of an asshole - but he understands why Hoya did it. 

“He did what?” Myungsoo asks with a gasp, starting to sit up before groaning in pain and lying back down. Then, “Is that why Woohyun has a bruise on his face?”

“Yep,” Sungyeol says with a shrug that Myungsoo can’t even see, “Where else would he have got it?”

“During the rescue mission?” Myungsoo suggests. As if the idea that Woohyun got into a fist fight with anyone was more logical than Hoya losing his shit when it came to Myungsoo (he doesn’t think there would have been anyone left for Woohyun to fight after Hoya was done). 

“Nope, that was Hoya, punched him clean in the jaw.” Sungyeol says. And then because he feels bad throwing Hoya under the bus he adds, “but it wasn’t that bad, like he didn’t break anything.” 

“That’s not an excuse,” Myungsoo says petulantly, reaching out to wrap his fingers around Sungyeol’s hand. 

“He was just worried about you,” Sungyeol says as he laces their fingers together, because he really does feel bad for telling Myungsoo this when Hoya isn’t here to defend himself, “And he probably shouldn’t have done it but I don’t think Woohyun is too mad and please don’t be too harsh on him.” 

Sungyeol hates it when Hoya and Myungsoo are upset with each other, though he’s never been able to put his finger on exactly why it bothers him. Maybe the fact Myungsoo comes and whines his ear off about it.

“I know,” Myungsoo says with a sigh, “But Howon has worked so hard, for so long at trying to convince Woohyun to stop blaming himself for things that aren’t his fault and I’m kind of worried that this is going to set him right back to where he was years ago.” 

Sungyeol feels guilty at that, but doesn’t bother acknowledging the guilt because he’s not really stopped feeling guilty since Myungsoo was taken, “Things will work themselves out,” Sungyeol says with certainty because he knows they will.

Maybe they’ve never been split apart this badly before but he firmly believes that they’re still not nearly as broken as they were when they first started, that their team work will be stronger than it was during the early days. If they survived the Before The Dawn Job they can survive this.

Which reminds him, “Besides Hoya punched him once, didn’t almost strangle him to death.” Sungyeol says, turning his head just to see the blush he’s sure that Myungsoo is going to be sporting. He’s not disappointed. 

“That was different,” Myungsoo says petulantly.

“Yeah, it’ll probably take him much less time to recover from this one,” Sungyeol says teasingly, laughing as Myungsoo rolls over on top of him and hides his face in his shoulder. 

Sungyeol continues to laugh as he wraps his arms around Myungsoo.

 

♙♙♙

It’s not like Woohyun has been making an effort to avoid Myungsoo since they rescued him.

That would be stupid and immature. It’s true he hasn’t seen much of Myungsoo in the hours since they’ve rescued him and regrouped but that was because Sunggyu had sent him out on an errand (the cynical part of him is sure Sunggyu had just wanted him out of the house since what he’d been doing could have been done on the internet).

By the time he gets back it’s late and he doesn’t want to bother Myungsoo. Instead he cooks dinner with Dongwoo, continues to actively avoid Sungyeol (who is apparently looking after Myungsoo so that’s another reason he doesn’t see Myungsoo), and chatters with Sunggyu who’s sitting at the kitchen counter, watching them cook and offering suggestions but doing absolutely nothing of any use himself.

By the time dinner is finished Hoya and Sungjong return from wherever they’ve been, though Woohyun only catches a glimpse of Hoya’s back as he rushes off - probably to check on Myungsoo. 

Dinner is less awkward than Woohyun thought it would be, all things considered.  After it’s finished Dongwoo and Hoya head off to the gym, Sunggyu and Sungyeol to the second planning studio, and Sungjong is on Myungsoo duty (they’re taking turns keeping watch - making sure his concussion isn’t too terrible). 

Woohyun cleans up the house, has a shower, re-settles himself into his room. Eventually though he decides he should go check on Myungsoo, check that he really is okay, and make sure he doesn’t resent Woohyun (he doesn’t think Myungsoo would because that’s not the type of person Myungsoo is but his fear is rational). 

The door to his bedroom is slightly ajar, and Woohyun can hear the murmur of voices as he approaches.

It’s not until he’s right outside the door however that he realises it’s not Sungjong that Myungsoo is talking with but Hoya. Woohyun had thought that Hoya was still out with Dongwoo, but he’d clearly been wrong. 

He hovers for a few seconds, trying to make out the words. It’s not that he’s trying to eavesdrop on their private conversations, he just wants to see if it’s a conversation he can interrupt or if it’s better to come back later.  

It takes Woohyun a second to realise they’re talking about him, “You should apologise to Woohyun,” Myungsoo is saying quietly. At least that confirms that Myungsoo isn’t mad with him, Woohyun realises with a sigh.

Woohyun peers through the crack in the door, just slightly, assuming that as usual when they’re together that they’re so wrapped up in each other that they won’t notice his presence.

He’s right, even though they’re almost facing the door - sitting on the bed with Hoya leaning against the wall and Myungsoo between his legs, their legs tangled together - he’s pretty sure that don’t see him. If they did, they’d probably stop talking about him, he imagines. 

“I know,” Hoya admits with a sigh, “I’ll do it tomorrow.”

Woohyun wasn’t expecting an apology, didn’t really blame him all things considered. It  _was_  Woohyun’s fault after all. 

“You shouldn’t have punched him at all,” Myungsoo says with a little frown, scolding Hoya, “It wasn’t his fault.” 

“I know.” Hoya repeats again. Woohyun is surprised, was expecting Hoya to argue that it was Woohyun’s fault. 

There’s silence, Woohyun thinks they’re probably done, before Hoya says something that makes Woohyun pause. “Myungsoo, I’m sorry.” 

Myungsoo flips around so he’s facing Hoya quicker than Woohyun would ever thought possible (he’s not graceful but Myungsoo isn’t the most graceful at the best of times, let alone with a lingering concussion), “No. You’re not allowed to be self-pitying,” Myungsoo says, grasping Hoya’s face between his hands.

“I’m not trying to be,” Hoya says adamantly, though it sounds like a lie to Woohyun’s ears, “I just want you to know. That I’m sorry this happened to you, that we didn’t get to your quicker.”

“It’s okay,” Myungsoo says, sounding so tired all of a sudden, “You came and that’s what’s important.” 

“I’m sorry,” Hoya repeats, leaning his head against Myungsoo’s forehead.  

“It’s okay,” Myungsoo whispers back. 

“It’s not okay,” Hoya argues before sighing, “I’m not okay when you’re not okay, you’re the only thing that keeps me sane. Keeps me centered.” 

“Give yourself more credit please,” Myungsoo says, his hands that are still on the sides of Hoya’s face tracing gentle patterns.  

“Everything good about me is because of you,” Hoya says, voice wobbling ever so slightly.

Myungsoo doesn’t argue this time. Instead he leans impossibly closer, and then they’re kissing. In some ways it’s like the one from earlier in the warehouse, reassurance and softness and relief bleeding through. In other ways it’s so much more, passionate and intimate and like all the things they couldn’t put into words but a few moments before.

Woohyun backs away from the door, knowing this is something not meant for his eyes. He’ll come back later, when he knows Hoya is out.

Instead he turns on his heel and goes looking for Dongwoo, wondering if he’s up for a gym session with Woohyun now that his usual partner is otherwise occupied

He categorically refuses to acknowledge the empty feeling swimming in his chest.

 

 

♔♚♔ 

Sunggyu knows that he’s going to have to check on Woohyun. Knows that he can’t keep just palming these kinds of discussions off to Dongwoo; it’s not fair on Dongwoo (though Woohyun would probably in all honesty prefer to talk to Dongwoo).

When he finds Woohyun in the gym with Dongwoo he’s surprised, but then he also decides that maybe that’s a sign to leave it. It’s one thing to seek Woohyun out, it’s another to pull him away from Dongwoo who is way better at this reassurance thing.

Unfortunately, Dongwoo sees him and ushers him in behind Woohyun’s back with this determined looking expression.

Earlier, Dongwoo had told him that he needed to be the one to talk to Woohyun - Had told him that Woohyun needed to hear it from their leader, that Dongwoo reassured everyone so often that his words probably had minimal impact.

Sunggyu had been going to do it anyway but Dongwoo had been right about most of it - except Dongwoo’s words were never going to have minimal impact. 

Sunggyu sighs, straightens his shoulders and walks towards them.

“What are you doing in the gym?” Dongwoo asks him playfully, as if he doesn’t know the exact reason, “Is it international gym day? Are we going to see Sungyeol down here next?” 

Sunggyu watches Woohyun carefully at the mention of Sungyeol and he doesn’t change his expression at all (He’s a grifter that shouldn't mean anything, except before today he had been shifting at the mention of Sungyeol).

 “I was looking for Woohyun actually,” Sunggyu says, deciding to cut to the chase instead of getting involved with anything Dongwoo is doing to lighten the mood. 

“You found me,” Woohyun says with a distasteful expression. Woohyun is even more allergic to talking than Sunggyu is. Maybe that will make this more awkward or maybe it’ll make it more efficient. Sunggyu’s hoping for the latter but betting on the former, “so you can go now.” 

It’s not rude exactly (which is the only reason Sunggyu is letting it slide), more like a half-hearted attempt to get out of talking. It doesn’t work 

“I found you and now I want to talk to you,” Sunggyu says with a roll of his eyes to show Woohyun he’s not buying his bullshit.

Woohyun sighs but shrugs, getting up off the rowing machine (Sunggyu thinks - gym equipment isn’t really his area of expertise) that Woohyun had been sitting on but not using. 

 “I’ll leave you two to it and go check on Myungsoo then,” Dongwoo says stepping away from the punching bag he’d been standing by but not using “It’s almost my turn on the shift anyway.” 

“I don’t think you need to worry about that,” Woohyun says with a smile that’s hard to read, “Hoya’s with him.” 

“Oh good,” Dongwoo smiles brightly, as if he’s pleased by this entirely expected development. 

“If you need someone to pester go and find Sungjong,” Sunggyu can’t help calling after Dongwoo’s retreating back, “Please don’t bother Sungyeol, he’s actually working.” 

“So you think,” Dongwoo says with a cheeky salute over his shoulder before he’s gone.

Sunggyu sighs and rolls his eyes, trying not to look as fond as he feels before turning his attention back to Woohyun. 

“We both know Dongwoo put you up to this,” Woohyun says as soon as Sunggyu is looking at him, before he has the chance to talk, “And neither of us want to talk so can’t we just pretend we did?” It’s said in that hybrid joking manner that Woohyun is so fond of where he phrases things he really wants like a joke.

“Please, Dongwoo would know in a heartbeat,” Sunggyu scoffs before saying more seriously, “And I do want to talk. Make sure you’re alright.” He doesn’t want to have the talk but he wants to make sure Woohyun is alright and there’s no other way to do it.

“I’m fine.” Woohyun says so fast, it’s a reflex.

“We all know what happened last time you insisted you were fine,” Sunggyu tells him. Sunggyu didn’t get involved with that last time, and maybe he should have, but he can’t imagine he’d have been anywhere near as helpful as Hoya had been - having no real experience with PTSD and trauma. This time though, Woohyun needs to know he’s in his corner.

“Getting drugged is slightly different from Sungyeol being a little shit,” Woohyun says with a scoff. For someone that’s supposedly an amazing grifter Woohyun is broadcasting just how uncomfortable he is right now with his entire body, “That’s just an average Wednesday.” 

Sunggyu sighs, “Come on, let’s go.” Sunggyu says walking towards the door and hoping Woohyun is following. Hoping he’s curious.

Sure enough, “Where are we going?” Woohyun asks whilst Sunggyu pushes the door open. 

“We’re going to get something to eat, my shout,” Sunggyu says with a roll of his eyes.

“It’s after midnight and we’ve already eaten dinner,” Woohyun points out skeptically. That doesn’t stop him following Sunggyu out the building. 

“Think of it like a midnight snack,” Sunggyu says, before adding “Or if you’d prefer we can go back to the apartment and talk there. But we’re going to talk.”

“We can eat,” Woohyun says hastily as Sunggyu knew he would, “If you’re sure it’s safe to leave the house?”

“I think SM have better things to do than look for us right now,” Sunggyu says. Which isn’t strictly true but he’s fairly confident if they were going to find and ambush them they’d have done it by now. Their best people are probably busy on damage control (or fleeing the country). 

“Fair enough,” Woohyun says as they walk along. It’s mostly silent as they walk to the all hours restaurant a couple of minutes from their building that they’d discovered during the Chaser job. 

It’s not until after they’ve got their food that Sunggyu starts to talk. For once in his life he has no real plan on what he wants to say, he just talks. 

“Stop listening to Sungyeol,” he blurts out before cringing. Yeah, not the best opening he could have gone for. 

Woohyun cocks an eyebrow at him, “Stop listening to our tech guy, that seems like a terrible idea.”

“Stop listening to the bullshit that Sungyeol is spewing,” Sunggyu says. Although he gets the feeling that the whole Myungsoo incident had shaken Sungyeol up enough that he’s going to be more careful with his words towards Woohyun. Or at least Sunggyu can hope.

“I’m a big boy Sunggyu,” Woohyun says with this incredibly stiff smile on his face, “I can take a few sarcastic comments.”

“Come off it,” Sunggyu says with a scoff, leaning across the table. He wants Woohyun to understand what he’s saying - he doesn’t need to respond or talk himself he just needs to understand, “Sungyeol was not making a few sarcastic comments he was being a right fucking asshole and trying to hurt you and it doesn’t make you fucking weak to admit that he said things that were nasty and that hurt.”

“That’s rich coming from you,” Woohyun scoffs. It’s a defense measure, one that Sunggyu understands very well. He has to keep saying that so he doesn’t give up and walk away.

“You think the shit that you guys said about me amongst yourselves when I first started didn’t hurt?” Sunggyu asks almost rhetorically, “I mean, I didn’t tell you because that would have undermined my authority but Dongwoo knew.”

Woohyun doesn’t say anything in response to that, looks down at his bowl looking slightly chastised.

Sunggyu sighs, “If you don’t want to talk to me about it I respect that,” honestly he’s a bit relieved by that. He’s not sure what he’d do with Woohyun talking to him about anything serious, “I just want you to know that I am on your side, Sungyeol was out of line, what he said was bullshit and you know that. Don’t let words designed to get under your skin throw you off your game.” 

“Because when I do shit goes wrong, right?” Woohyun asks with a sarcastic scoff.

“Obviously, you’re one of the most important members of this team,” Sunggyu says. Everyone is important of course, but Woohyun whilst not the glue that holds them together is the person who the plan always relies on most - he has faith Woohyun can pull of anything that’s thrown his way, “And yeah we can’t afford for you to be listening to Sungyeol’s bullshit. But you know what, you’re on my team, I don’t want you feeling like shit either.”

Honesty is the best policy but Sunggyu feels like he’s three seconds away from saying something that could shatter Woohyun’s already battered ego, or piss him off.  

“It would be stupid to take what Sungyeol said to heart.” Woohyun says, the self-deprecation clear in his words.

“It would be fucking human Woohyun,” Sunggyu says with a roll of his eyes, deciding this conversation is as good as done, “Now I know you have a high opinion of yourself but you’re still human so stop expecting yourself not to have emotions and feelings.

Woohyun looks away. Sunggyu takes that as his sign to drop it, instead he asks, “Now, since I’ve got you here how about you tell me what you noticed and saw today whilst you were out scouting.”

Woohyun gives him a grateful smile before launching into his story.

 

 

♖♖♖

Despite Dongwoo’s best intentions, Myungsoo doesn’t actually get a proper meal the evening after he’s rescued.

“It’s okay, he did eat something,” Sungyeol tells him reassuringly as the two of them putter around in the kitchen early the next morning. Dongwoo has just gotten up but he’s pretty sure Sungyeol never went to sleep and instead had been monitoring the outcomes of their plan online.

Dongwoo is pretty sure that he’s punishing himself, and usually he’d say something, but this time he doesn’t. Partially because Sungyeol isn’t doing anyone any harm, partially because they do need to keep an eye on the situations. There might even be a part of him that thinks maybe Sungyeol deserves to punish himself. It’s a tiny part, and he feels guilty for it, but at least he’s being productive. 

“Was that substitute for a meal a single grain of rice or something?” Dongwoo asks suspiciously, shooing Sungyeol out of his way.  

Sungyeol’s need for coffee does not trump everyone else’s need to be fed. Especially because the coffee machine is essentially automated so Sungyeol doesn’t need to be hovering. 

Sungyeol scoffs and rolls his eyes, “Look, it was an energy bar; okay I realise it’s not the most nutritious option but it was something more than what you managed so please keep your criticism to yourself.”

Dongwoo tries not to laugh at how defensive Sungyeol seems right now, “Okay, it was better than nothing,” he says placatingly. Because it was.

He’s still worried though because anyone who has ever met Myungsoo would be able to tell that not eating means Myungsoo is probably feeling worse than he’s letting on. 

Sungyeol hums, sitting on the breakfast bar as he eyes the coffee machine spitefully. As if that’s going to give him his caffeine fix faster.

Without Sungjong keeping tabs on how much he’s been drinking, Sungyeol’s caffeine consumption has been skyrocketing. Dongwoo is slightly worried, but not enough to say anything, he’ll just keep an eye on it, wait to see if it continues once things are settled or if it’s just a stress thing. 

There’s relative silence as Dongwoo keeps cooking and Sungyeol finally gets his coffee, holding it as if it’s the most precious thing on the planet to him. Sungyeol is still chatting, just not nearly as much as he usually does. The sleep deprivation talking. 

Dongwoo is just considering whether he’s going to have to go and wake everyone else up when Myungsoo and Sungjong emerge. 

Dongwoo doesn’t even pretend he’s not relieved when Myungsoo makes his appearance, grumbling about ‘needing’ food, Sungjong trailing behind him at a reasonable distance though still close enough to react if anything goes wrong.

“So hungry,” Myungsoo slurs, voice still heavy with sleep as he sits down on the floor, back against the refrigerator. 

“So hungry you’re attempting to get food by osmosis, sitting next to the refrigerator?” Sungyeol asks cheekily, “I hate to break it to you Myungsoo but you cannot diffuse nutrients through a fridge door.” 

Myungsoo scrunches his face up and Sungyeol, “It’s hot.” He complains. It’s not exactly boiling out at the moment but it is warmer than your average August day.

“Poor baby,” Sungyeol says, even as he slides off the counter (coffee still clutched tightly in his hands - he’s onto his second cup now) to sit next to Myungsoo on the floor.

It doesn’t escape Dongwoo’s notice the way that Sungjong is eyeing the coffee with distaste but doesn’t actually say anything.

Myungsoo makes some unintelligible noise as he buries his head in Sungyeol’s neck. To Sungyeol’s credit he shifts his cup to his other hand, and pats Myungsoo’s neck softly. 

“Do you need some help?” Sungjong asks Dongwoo, gesturing to his cooking.

He doesn’t  _really_  but Sungjong rarely bother to help with cooking so there must be a reason he’s volunteering, so he gives him a task to do. 

Sungjong steps over Sungyeol and Myungsoo on the floor gracefully as he gets to work. Dongwoo is glad he’s got basically everything that’s he needs out of the refrigerator because whilst they’re painting a cute picture there on the striped linoleum they're in the way.

In fact Dongwoo takes out his phone to snap a picture and send it to Hoya. Which reminds him, “Where’s Hoya?” he asks Sungjong in an undertone.

Sungjong’s face contorts in an expression that could never be mistaken for anything other than the disapproval it clearly is, “I don’t know, I haven’t seen him this morning.”

“Oh,” Myungsoo’s head peeks up looking at the two of them, “I know, he went out with …” he pauses here as if thinking before saying, “Woohyun! He went out with Woohyun.” 

Sungjong’s face relaxes at that. Dongwoo understands, he doesn’t think Woohyun and Hoya are going to have a problem but hopefully they can bury their hatchet, whatever it is.  

“Well, in that case it’s only Sunggyu that’s missing, and this is just about done,” he says looking down at the counter and checking everything off mentally, “So does someone want to get Sunggyu for me?” Dongwoo asks, shooting Sungyeol a look to imply that he’s really asking Sungyeol

Sungyeol looks like he’s making to get up, but before he can Myungsoo says, “I’ll do it,”

He needs Sungjong’s help to climb to his feet, and he manages to walk into the table and the door frame in his half-awake state (looking so adorably confused both times he does it that Dongwoo can’t help but laugh).

“Well he’s looking better this morning,” Dongwoo says with a laugh, “Sungyeol, set the table,” he adds. They’re going to have a proper meal together - even if it’s only five of them. He’ll make sure they eat as seven tonight.

“Yeah,” Sungyeol says, getting up without complaint. Either he’s too out of it to care, or he’s that relieved about Myungsoo he’s feeling generous, “Although here’s hoping he learns to be less clumsy eventually.”

“That, I think, is a futile task,” Sungjong jokes, helping Sungyeol with the table without being asked, “I think Myungsoo was just born clumsy. It’s in his DNA.”

Well no one is going to argue there.

 

♙♙♙

Woohyun is emotionally drained.  

Not only has this been a month from hell, between SM being down their backs, and the pressure from the team and the small issue of Myungsoo being kidnapped, in the last 24-hours everyone has wanted to talk about their ‘feelings’. 

Which is all well and good Woohyun supposes, there’s nothing wrong with that if that’s your thing, but it’s not his thing. 

It’s not something he gets any sort of benefit out of, and yet he’s done it. 

The only person (besides Myungsoo) who hasn’t tried to have a talk with him is Sungyeol. Which he knows for a fact some members of the team are annoyed about, but Woohyun appreciates it. He’s not sure if it’s because Sungyeol knows he doesn’t like to talk or Sungyeol just doesn’t like to talk himself. Maybe a combination of the two.

Rather Sungyeol had downloaded the new episodes of the drama he was not so secretly fond of onto Woohyun’s laptop (including one that Woohyun is pretty sure hasn’t even _aired_ yet), said he wasn’t that useless and gone right back to treating him how he had before everything went to shit. Things weren’t fixed between them, they were still awkward as fuck, but Woohyun felt it was more even in its routine awkwardness now. They were both hesitant rather than Woohyun waiting for Sungyeol’s latest insult to be slung his way.

Sunggyu’s talk with him had been awkward to say the least, probably at Dongwoo’s prodding. Hoya had gone for a simple apology for punching him, which Woohyun appreciated but was still awkward. Dongwoo was doing the over concerned thing he’d been doing the whole time, and Woohyun didn’t even know how to describe the sort of concerned lecturing Sungjong had gone for.

Woohyun is interrupted from his melancholy musing about his place in the team by Myungsoo’s arrival. Myungsoo doesn’t even say anything as he drags the blanket from his bed behind him, just managing to sling himself under Woohyun’s arm (and misjudging the distance and butting his head into Woohyun’s elbow in the process).

“What’s up sweetheart?” Woohyun asks absent-mindedly, as his phone buzzes with a text message. 

“Head hurts,” Myungsoo groans, words running together so much that Woohyun has to concentrate to make them out. 

“Do you need more painkillers?” Woohyun asks, wondering where Hoya and Sungyeol have kept them stashed with half his brain. The other half is trying to figure out who this text message has come from. 

“No,” Myungsoo says, shaking his head before flinching, “Just took some, didn’t help.” 

“I’m sorry you’re hurting,” Woohyun tells him, running his fingers through Myungsoo’s hair gently and staring at his phone as if that will give him the answers. His first thought is it must be Kibum, but that might be wishful thinking more than anything.

“It’s the worst headache I’ve ever had,” Myungsoo says, words muffled by the fact he’s hiding his face in Woohyun’s sweater. 

“I know, I’m sorry,” Woohyun says, petting his head even more. Woohyun has had a concussion once or twice himself and he knows the pain is pretty awful, a different kind of pain to the tension headache Myungsoo usually gets so he’s probably not used to them either.  

“Make it stop,” Myungsoo whines. Woohyun aches for him, he does, knows there’s really nothing he can do for Myungsoo except let him wait it out.

“I’m sorry, I can’t,” Woohyun says continuing to pat at Myungsoo as he burrows closer into his side, as if he could dull the pain by burying himself inside Woohyun. It’s a weird mental image but Woohyun’s brain is in a weird place at the moment. 

Myungsoo whines then quietens, giving Woohyun the chance to properly examine the text messages, more having come through. Now he does he’s sure it’s got to be Kibum. Which means he needs Sunggyu, although the way Myungsoo is all over him means he can’t exactly get up at the moment. 

Thankfully the universe is being kind to him for once because someone walks past. That someone is Sungyeol, but it’s better than no one. “Sungyeol,” Woohyun hisses, not sure if Myungsoo has fallen asleep or not because he’s gone very still. 

Sungyeol stiffens before turning to Woohyun with an obviously forced nonchalant expression, “Yeah, what’s up?” 

“Do you know where Sunggyu is?” Woohyun asks.

 “He was upstairs with Dongwoo last I checked?” Sungyeol says questioningly, “Why?” 

“I have something really important I need to share with him,” Woohyun says itching to just go but not wanting to disturb Myungsoo. 

Sungyeol can see that because he cracks a slightly more genuine smile and teases lightly, “And you mean you don’t want to lug Myungsoo around with you everywhere? But he makes such a good statement piece.” 

Myungsoo is clearly not asleep because he sticks his arm up to flip Sungyeol off before letting it flop back down uselessly.

“It’s fine, I’ve got him,” Sungyeol says, walking over to Myungsoo. As soon as he reaches them Myungsoo unlatches from Woohyun and grabs right onto Sungyeol. Woohyun would be offended if he didn’t have other things on his mind (and understand how Myungsoo and Sungyeol were).

Woohyun gets up, but remembers to say, “His head’s still hurting him, pretty badly, the painkillers aren’t helping so much.” 

Myungsoo can clearly hear them but Woohyun is pretty sure he wouldn’t have said anything to Sungyeol.

“I’ll ask Hoya about seeing if we can get him something stronger,” Sungyeol says as Myungsoo whimpers and clings tighter.

“Okay, cool, thanks,” Woohyun says, already backing out of the room, “See you later.” 

He runs into Hoya in the hall, which is good, excellent timing, “Come with me,” He says, grabbing Hoya’s hand and pulling him out of the apartment, not even giving Hoya the chance to put his shoes back on. 

“Where are we going?” Hoya asks in confusion but to his credit he doesn’t fight Woohyun.

“To see Sunggyu,” Woohyun says, dragging him up the staircase instead of waiting for the elevators, “Lee Jinki wants to talk.”

 

♔♚♔

Sunggyu is minding his own business, taking a break in the upstairs loft with Dongwoo, consolidating his plans and figuring out how much longer they’d need to lay low before leaving the country (he’s thinking maybe a week - SM should be so tangled up in trying to keep the media off their shoulders that they’ll ignore them) when Woohyun comes bursting in, dragging Hoya behind him. 

“Sunggyu,” he basically shouts entirely unnecessarily, “Sunggyu.”

“I’m right here,” Sunggyu says dryly, besides the bathroom there are no rooms in this apartment, Woohyun can clearly see him, “What do you want?”

Woohyun shoves a phone in his face, and Sunggyu can feel himself go cross-eyed as he tries to focus on the text messages that Woohyun has open. Eventually he sighs, yanking the phone out of Woohyun’s hand and reading it. Well that’s unexpected. 

“Is this legitimate?” He asks Woohyun as Dongwoo crowds over his shoulder to read the messages himself (he’s got to be standing on his tiptoes to be able to see, so Sunggyu bends his knees just slightly to assist him). 

“I think so,” Woohyun says rubbing at his forehead with a sigh, “I mean, I assume it’s Kibum, he’s using all the code words we had set up as teenagers.”

“Could be a trap,” Sunggyu says, thoughtfully. 

Why else would the leader of one of SM’s most proficient teams want to meet up with him. Especially when their organisation was crumbling down around their ears. 

“They did help us,” Hoya points out quietly, hovering behind Woohyun in the entrance, “Jonghyun helped us, Kibum helped us.”

“Or Jonghyun led Myungsoo into a trap,” Sunggyu says. He’s still not sure how to interpret what Jonghyun did, the role it had in Myungsoo’s disappearance.

“If he hadn’t done it they’d have taken Woohyun and Jong and our only advantage. He couldn’t have known,” Hoya looks at Woohyun out of the corner of his eye here, “Things would have gone wrong.” 

“Why are you so convinced it’s not a trap?” Sunggyu asks in confusion. Hoya has always seemed more suspicious of SM than the rest of them, so the fact he’s backing one of their teams up right now is baffling to say the least.

“Because I’ve been paying attention to everything they’ve done so far, and not once have their attempts to help been a trap, but three times they’ve saved our asses.” Hoya points out logically. Hoya is the best judge of shady motivations, and one of the most pragmatic people that Sunggyu knows, he also has a point.

“Okay, so do we meet them then?” Sunggyu asks, wondering what this could be about. He’s curious though, he hates to admit, extremely curious. Which might be exactly what a trap is hinging on. 

“What do we have to lose by going?” Dongwoo asks, calmly, “What do we have to lose by not going.”

“Well if we go and it’s a trap than there’s a lot for us to potentially lose,” Sunggyu says rubbing at his forehead, “Even if it’s not a trap, someone could have noticed how much of a shine Jonghyun took to Myungsoo and be suspicious.” 

“Or they could be suspicious of Kibum’s connection with Woohyun, or put both of them together,” Hoya chimes in. Helpful. 

“If we don’t go?” Dongwoo prompts. 

“Well, we never find out what they want.” Sunggyu says thoughtfully. He doesn’t know if that’s a good thing. He isn’t sure there’s anything of any particular value they could be wanting to say after everything. 

“You will die of curiosity,” Hoya tells him with a wry grin. He’s not wrong.

“Okay, so we’re meeting them then,” Dongwoo says with a shrug as if it’s that easy - as if it’s an agreement they’ve all come to, “Or do you want to vote on it?” He asks Sunggyu teasingly. Brat. 

“Fine, okay we’ll meet with them, give me a minute to think of a plan,” Sunggyu rubs at a plan, wondering who to take. Woohyun for sure, because the messages came to him, definitely Hoya and Dongwoo probably would refuse to be left behind. Which means the three youngest are staying behind, and Sunggyu knows Sungyeol at least would protest so they’re probably better off not telling them until they’ve left.

“Well, we’ve got half an hour till they want to meet,” Woohyun says waving his phone under Sunggyu’s nose (Sunggyu hadn’t even noticed that Woohyun had taken his phone back), “So you better think fast.”

 

 

 

♝♝♝

Sungyeol is not exactly impressed that Sunggyu had left off to go fucking meet with SM goons without any notice. 

Sure Sungyeol’s annoyed he was left behind, but he’s even more annoyed about the lack of warning. About the fact Sunggyu hasn’t even taken a comms so that he can make sure they’re alright, had just sent Sungyeol and Sungjong a text and told them to stay behind and watch Myungsoo.

Sungyeol would have looked after Myungsoo anyway, he has no desire to see anyone associated with SM again in his life, but being left in the dark is not cool.

Part of him wonders if this is Sunggyu’s idea of a punishment or something for everything for this job, but then he has no reason to punish Sungjong who has been left behind as well. 

Sungyeol sighs as he runs his fingers through Myungsoo’s hair. The two of them are on the bed in Sungyeol’s room for the unfortunate reason that it’s closer to the bathroom than Myungsoo’s room. 

Whatever he’d had for lunch clearly wasn’t agreeable to Myungsoo’s stomach, and he’d thrown it back up a couple of hours later. He’s dozing now, fitfully, wrapped in a blanket and a hoodie of Hoya’s (which looks so ridiculous on him that Sungyeol can’t help but laugh).

“How is he?” Sungjong asks, coming through the doorway for potentially the first time in his life. 

There’s something awkward about Sungjong at the moment, Sungyeol can’t put his finger on it straight away and he doesn’t have time to think about it too deeply when he’s so worried about Myungsoo. 

“Okay, I guess,” Sungyeol says, “I mean as okay as you can be with what seems to be a nasty concussion,” 

Myungsoo groans a bit, rolling onto his side and away from Sungyeol. 

Sungyeol figures that his voice is disturbing Myungsoo’s already distributed sleep so he looks at Sungjong and then towards the door a couple of times, asking Sungjong if he wants to continue this conversation or not.

It takes Sungjong longer to decide than Sungyeol would have expected, chewing on his bottom lip in thought. Eventually he nods and Sungyeol pushes Myungsoo away gently so he can follow Sungjong from the room. 

“Do you think we should tell Hoya he’s been throwing up?” Sungjong asks in concern once the two of them are in the kitchen, far enough away so they’re not disturbing Myungsoo but close enough to hear him if they need to, “Should we call him?”

Sungyeol thinks, “Do you know if they’re almost finished with whatever they’re doing?” Sungyeol asks. He hasn’t heard back from them, but Sungjong might have.

Sungjong nods, “Yeah, Dongwoo said they’re upstairs - apparently they’ve got some interesting things to think over.”

Sungyeol would probably feel resentful at being left out again, but they’ve got more important things to think about right now. 

“Okay, well we should probably tell Hoya when he gets back then,” Sungyeol says, tapping on his bottom lip with his finger thoughtfully, “But there’s no need to interrupt their secret meeting and worry him, I’m pretty sure vomiting is a normal symptom of concussion anyway.”

“If a concussion doesn’t go away in a couple of days you’re meant to take someone to the hospital.” Sungjong says. Sungjong has always been the one pushing for injuries to be treated at hospital (though not his own) - Sungyeol wonders if there’s a story there or it’s just a personal quirk.

“Not really an option for us,” Sungyeol says. Unfortunately, “But if he doesn’t get better in the next couple of days we should probably give Kei a call.” 

“You mean I should give Kei a call because I’m the only one she picks up for anymore?” Sungjong says with a snort. That’s not technically true but she has always been more fond of Sungjong than anyone else.

“Yeah, okay I’ll let you call your girlfriend,” Sungyeol says sarcastically. The look on Sungjong’s face at that is interesting, but Sungyeol doesn’t get a chance to examine it. 

“Sungyeol,” Myungsoo says, startling both of them. They turn around to find Myungsoo staring at Sungyeol with unseeing eyes, as he clutches onto the doorframe to prop himself up. “Where’s Howon,” his words slur together.

Sungyeol’s blood runs cold, this does not seem normal, and something is telling him that something is very wrong with Myungsoo. 

“Howon will be back very soon,” Sungyeol says taking a step towards Myungsoo, and then another, trying not to startle him but also get to him as soon as possible, “Why? What’s wrong.” 

“I can’t…” Myungsoo slurs, swaying from side to side, “I can’t feel my,”

Then, Sungyeol watches in horror, unable to get to him in time as Myungsoo falls to the floor.

 

 

☆★☆

 

_Still you stumble, feet give way_  
_Outside the world seems a violent place_  
_But you had to have him, and so you did  
_ _Some things you let go in order to live_

 

☆★☆

 

**The One Great Step Job  
** **2013: August**

**Target: SM**  
**Client: -  
** **Location: Seoul, SK**

**Status: Complete  
** **Repercussions: To Be Determined**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  
> 
>  
> 
> Sorry Myungsoo [2]


	17. Chapter Eleven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember when I said I hoped these chapters would go back to a decent length? Yeah me neither since this is the second longest chapter to date ( my beta planned 4 of these scenes and wrote one of them for me so at least that helped - I don't deserve her.)(I think it'll become pretty obvious what those scenes were and which one she wrote)
> 
> Anyway this is a week late because I fell over last weekend and thought I'd just like banged my knee but I also ended up spraining my wrist and neck (I didn't even know you could sprain your neck and yet here we are), so between that and how busy my beta has been our schedule has been pushed back a week. I'm really sorry but I'll still get up to the same point before leaving, I just wasn't planning on posting a chapter the week I fly out but I'll post it Friday that week when we fly out Saturday :).
> 
> Not sure anyone even read this so onwards

**PART TWO**

 

_Some roads you start down you can't turn back. [We’re] about a hundred miles down one of those right now._

 

 

♟♟♟

POST THE CHASER JOB

Myungsoo sits on his bed watching with appraising eyes as Howon bustles around his (their) room picking things up and putting them down absently. He’s supposedly packing up to move on but he’s barely put anything in his bag in the last three hours.

For someone who has the art of moving down to an art, who has quite literally picked and up left things with a minute’s notice before, it’s telling.

“You’re being stupid,” Myungsoo tells him eventually, once Howon has been staring at one of their pictures for over ten minutes (It’s one of Myungsoo’s favourites photos of one of his favourite days - him and Howon standing side by side with matching suits and smiles. Soojung and Eunji standing either side of them with little Jiwon riding on Howon’s shoulders. He’s not surprised that’s what made Howon pause).

“Excuse me?” Howon asks, looking more confused than offended as he turns to look at Myungsoo, “I didn’t do anything!”

“That’s exactly the point,” Myungsoo says with a roll of his eyes, “You’re being stupid.”

“Repeating that I’m being stupid isn’t clarifying anything,” Howon says putting the picture down with a final look before walking over to Myungsoo.

“You’re being a stupid martyr doing that whole I don’t deserve happiness thing again,” Myungsoo tells him bluntly. He’s been thinking it for a while, but if Howon was happy doing what he was doing, Myungsoo wasn’t going to stop him (drop a few hints here and there yes but not stop him).

“You’re my happiness,” Howon says cheekily, reaching out to cradle Myungsoo’s face for a second before leaning down to kiss him softly.

Myungsoo tries to ignore the little flicker of warmth that Howon initiating affection always brings him (even after all this time - even when it’s not even rare anymore) because he knows what Howon is doing.

“No,” Myungsoo says when they break apart, reaching out to flick Howon’s forehead gently, “No cheating.”

“I would never cheat on you,” Howon says with an impudent grin even as he sits down next to Myungsoo.

Myungsoo tries not to roll his eyes again because he’s pretty sure that was awful on purpose and not Howon actually thinking he’s funny as another distraction technique, “Would you be serious for three seconds please?” Myungsoo asks in frustration.

Howon opens his mouth and for an instant Myungsoo thinks Howon is actually going to pull a being serious for only three seconds exactly. Thankfully he doesn’t (that might have been where Myungsoo would have had to draw a line) and nods.

“You’re forcing yourself to leave even though you don’t really want to and that’s stupid,” Myungsoo tells him, deciding to get what he wants to say out in the open straight away so Howon can’t attempt anymore derailing techniques.

“I’m not doing that,” Howon says with a knee jerk reaction. It’s said so quickly that Myungsoo isn’t even sure Howon processed what he said.

“That’s why you’ve been packing for three hours and there’s not a single thing in your bag,” Myungsoo says dryly.

“I didn’t know what to take and what to leave with you,” Howon says. Howon always has an excuse for everything ready to go (it worries Myungsoo sometimes but he just has to take Howon at his word that he’s honest with Myungsoo about things that matter because what else can Myungsoo do?).

“You’ve been leaving me with the team for over a year,” Myungsoo says calling his bullshit with a cocked eyebrow. Howon always has an excuse but they’re often not very good, “You’ve never had this problem before.”

“I leave, I don’t stay in one place too long, that’s what I do Myungsoo,” Howon says looking like he’s getting ready for a fight. Myungsoo sighs, he’s not asking for a fight, he just wants Howon to be happy (and with him but that’s an added bonus more than anything).

“The team doesn’t stay in one place to long,” Myungsoo says wondering how long Howon’s going to keep trying this.

Not much longer, Myungsoo discovers, instead Howon switches to defensive, “Are you trying to force me to stay?” he asks heatedly, squaring his shoulders as if preparing for a fight.

It makes Myungsoo sad how used to everything being a fight Howon is, something so ingrained in him even their years together can never completely get rid of it.

“Stop and listen to me,” Myungsoo says reaching out to cover Howon’s mouth with his hand, “listen to the words I’m actually saying and not what you think I’m saying.”

Howon glowers at him but doesn’t attempt to fight him on it (maybe because Myungsoo is still covering his mouth).

“I think,” Myungsoo says wondering how to phrase the words so Howon doesn’t feel even more attacked. It’s going to be a tricky one, “I think that you want to stay but you don’t know how to ask for it or you think because you’ve always been moving on that’s what you have to do. I don’t know but you can stay and you want to stay so stay.” Myungsoo says letting his hand drop from Howon’s face hesitantly and holding his breath.

Howon gets to his feet and starts pacing.

“I don’t, you’re not,” he says, struggling with his words (despite how hard he tries to come across like he is Howon, not the most articulate person, especially when emotional), “You’re wrong.” He looks three seconds from stamping his foot or something.

“Lee Howon, you’re overreacting stop it,” Myungsoo snaps feeling at the end of his tether. Howon always brings that out in him, “Please.”

“I don’t want to stay; I want to be here but not always.” Howon says. He probably believes it as well, stupid man.

“You don’t have to always be here but you should stay,” Myungsoo tells him wanting to get up and go to him but knowing that’s not going to help in any way, shape, or form, “Just for a bit. I know compromising with people and taking other people into consideration is scary,” Myungsoo says (he’s not placating Howon is the thing - when he first started travelling with Howon the idea someone else would have control kept him up at night), “But I promise it’s worth it.”

“I compromised with you,” Howon points out. It seems to be more of a joke than a real argument (thankfully) though by the way Howon sits back down, closer to Myungsoo.

“Learn to compromise with people in a way that doesn’t involve sex,” Myungsoo says dryly.

Howon laughs, just slightly, at that. Then he says, “I don’t like having no choice. I don’t like being stuck in a place,” as if that’s not the first thing Myungsoo learned about Howon (the seconds thing - after how unexpectedly kind he is).

“You don’t have to stay forever,” Myungsoo knows that’s asking too much for Howon, knows that even when it was just the two of them Howon had to get away sometimes, “And god knows not everyone stays together all the time, Sungjong fucks off to who knows where and Sunggyu sneaks back to Korea, Woohyun needs space just like you,” Myungsoo says before realising he’s gotten side tracked, “You don’t have to stay with them always, you just need to stop forcing yourself to go just because you think you have to,” Myungsoo explains.

“When did you get so smart Kim Myungsoo,” Howon asks him teasingly, wrapping his arms around his waist and resting his head on his shoulder.

“Well when you started being so stupid, obviously,” Myungsoo says, reaching out to pat Howon’s cheek condescendingly, “Since someone’s got to be the smart one.”

Howon growls “I’ll show you stupid,” as he manages to tackle Myungsoo onto the bed, laughing the whole time.

They roll around for a bit play wrestling before Howon has him pinned down. Myungsoo sobers looking up at Howon with serious eyes, “You don’t have to stay, just don’t go.”

“Okay,” Howon says leaning down till his lips are hovering by Myungsoo’s ear, “I won’t go.”

Myungsoo smiles before dragging him into a kiss.

Good.

 

 

♘♘♘

**00:01:58**

Sungjong races up the stairs to the second apartment as fast as his legs will carry him, not even giving a thought to using the elevators or the vents (later he’ll wonder why he didn’t just use his phone to call Hoya but at the time it hadn’t even crossed his mind).

Barely two minutes after he’s left the downstairs apartment, he’s crashing into the upstairs apartment, causing all four of the occupants to stare at him.

He probably looks like a sight, frazzled and panicked. For the first time in years he’s not putting any thought what so ever into how he comes across, that doesn’t even matter.

“Sungjong, are you that desperate to see us?” Dongwoo asks jokingly before the smile falls of his face.

“Howon,” Sungjong gasps, trying to get air back into his lungs. He’s fitter than this, he shouldn’t out of breath from three flights of stairs, yet he feels like he might never breathe properly again.

“What happened?” Howon steps towards him in concern, “What happened to Myungsoo?” He’s more panicked this time.

“He passed out,” Sungjong gasps, watching over and over in his head the way Myungsoo’s eyes had rolled back in his head and he’d simply dropped to the floor, going limp like a rag doll. Sungjong had been rooted to the spot, utterly useless in an emergency even as Sungyeol had darted forward and managed to prevent Myungsoo’s head from smashing into something.

It wasn’t until Sungyeol had snapped at Sungjong to tell Hoya straight away that Sungjong had been shocked out of his stupor and into action.

Howon swears, rushing out the door before he’s even finished his litany of curse words. Sungjong follows behind him, hearing the other three following behind him.

By the time that Sungjong makes it back to the apartment Howon is crouched down in front of where Sungyeol is sitting on the floor, Myungsoo still cradled in his arms (still unconscious, to Sungjong’s horror. He’d had optimistic visions of Myungsoo being fine when they’d come back - having over-reacted to a dizzy spell or something).

“What happened?” Howon demands, looking between Sungjong and Sungyeol.

“He came out of my room when we were talking, he was slurring so badly I could barely understand him but I think he said he couldn’t feel his, he never got to say what exactly, before he just collapsed.” Sungyeol says, worry laced through his voice. It’s the most frazzled that Sungjong has ever heard Sungyeol.

“He threw up earlier as well,” Sungjong adds because whilst they’d written it off at the time that was probably related, probably something that Howon should know, “About an hour or two ago?”

“He said he felt okay though,” Sungyeol fretted, looking guilty, “I thought it was just lingering effects of concussion.”

“He said earlier,” Woohyun speaks up hesitantly, like he expects someone to jump down his throat or accuse him of something nastier, “He said that he had the worst headache he’s ever had before. I just thought he wasn’t used to concussion headaches.”

Howon swears again and pales.

“He’s been slurring all day actually, I thought he was just sleepy earlier,” Dongwoo adds. It seems they’ve all had serious symptoms they’ve noticed, it’s just that no one has talked about it enough to piece anything together, “And he’s been walking into things and misjudging things all day. But again I thought that was just the concussion combined with his usual clumsiness and sleep deprivation.”

“Anyone witnessed any seizures they forgot to tell me about?” Howon asks with a sarcastic snap. Sungjong understands why he’s frustrated, but none of this is doing Myungsoo any good.

“Well if you hadn’t been avoiding him all day,” Woohyun shoots back, despite himself.

“You dragged me away from him the second I came back, from the job Sunggyu sent me on,” Howon turns on Woohyun again. Sungjong feels like if Myungsoo wasn’t still passed out on the floor Hoyamight punch him again.

Sungjong is just thinking he should jump in when Hoya jumps into action, “Sungjong can you call Kei for me please, tell her the symptoms we’ve noticed and I think he has a subdural haematoma - she’s more likely to listen to you than anyone else and we need to take Myungsoo to the hospital for this.”

“Oh my god,” Dongwoo says, face draining the same way that Hoya’s had before, “you think?”

“Yes,” Hoya says as Sungjong does as he’s told waiting for Kei to pick up (probably with an exasperated sigh and some snark but he knows as soon as he relays the seriousness of the situation she’ll be willing to help right away).

“Want to fill those of us that don’t have any medical training in?” Woohyun asks sarcastically, looking tightly drawn and worried.

“Subdural haematoma,” Sungyeol says as Kei finally answers her phone with a ‘this better be life or death Lee Sungjong’ , “Hoya thinks that Myungsoo has bleeding on the brain.”

Sungjong drops the phone.

 

 

♔♚♔

THE LAST ROMEO JOB : JUNE 2014

Sunggyu isn’t sure why everyone is so interesting in the idea of Hoya and Dongwoo bleaching their hair (doesn’t know why he agreed to the idea from whoever came up with it).

What he does know is he has better things to be doing for this job than sitting waiting with the rest of the team for ‘the reveal’ as Myungsoo has taken to calling it.

(Maybe he’s still here because he’s a little bit curious - he’d never say it though).

Sungjong is off helping Hoya and Dongwoo with their hair as a self-proclaimed expert, but the other three are sitting waiting. Myungsoo is sitting on Sungyeol (and somehow those two have gotten even closer since everything) talking quietly about something, whilst Woohyun is sitting glued to his phone, pretending he’s above it yet looking up towards the bathroom doorway every minute or so in anticipation.

Sunggyu himself is sitting at the desk, trying to get some actual work done. It’s not going particularly well though because everyone is so loud.

Finally, Sungjong comes into the room, looking like he’s trying not to giggle. All eyes in the room are immediately on him.

“It can’t be that bad,” Woohyun says sceptically, “Can it.”

“See for yourself,” Sungjong says with a sigh as he comes to sit beside Woohyun on the couch.

Sungyeol, like the little shit that he is, has keyed up some kind of drumroll on his phone, and manages to time the opening of the bathroom door to the final beat. It’s impressive, and more than a little superfluous, and oh so very Sungyeol.

“You look awful,” Myungsoo crows in delight from where he’s perched on Sungyeol as Hoya and Dongwoo emerge, “I mean Dongwoo is passable but Hoya looks shit.”

“Thank you, I’m feeling the love,” Hoya tells him dryly.

Myungsoo manages to untangle his arms from around Sungyeol’s neck to blow Hoya a kiss.

“Well, it is certainly an interesting look,” Woohyun says tactfully, as if Woohyun is ever tactful.

“Neither of them look like thugs though.” Sunggyu says appraisingly, eyeing them up and down. They look less intimidating with the shocking blonde hair than they did before.

The only thing Sunggyu cares about how they look is if they’ll be able to do the job and like this they don’t really work (he will admit the sight is amusing though)

“I keep telling you that nothing on this earth could make Dongwoo look like a thug.” Sungjong tells them all with that bizarre haughty whine he has perfected.

Dongwoo grins looking incredibly pleased at that, as if that hadn’t been the entire reason they’d gone with the blonde - out of desperation to make Dongwoo look dangerous (Hoya is easy all he has to do is frown)

“They look less intimidating blonde.” Sungyeol says speaking up for the first time. The most surprisingly thing is he doesn’t seem to be getting much amusement out of this.

“Especially Hoya!” Myungsoo says looking like this is the best entertainment he’s had in a long while.

“Fine, fine this was a failed experiment move on.” Sunggyu rubs at his eyes, “Sungjong help them dye it back.”

“No,” Hoya says.

Everyone in the room turns to look at him in shock, especially since he’d been so adamantly opposed to the blonde in the first place.

“I just spent three hours burning the shit out of my skull, if you think I’m going to let that be for nothing you’re fucking mistaken.” He says with a roll of his eyes. Sunggyu sees his point.

Myungsoo apparently does not, “No what the fuck change it, right now.” He demands, stamping his feet (which has no effect because he ends up just stamping his feet on top of Sungyeol’s feet)

Hoya shoots him a cheeky grin and shrugs.

“No it’s awful,” Myungsoo insists, “Woohyun, tell him it’s awful.” Woohyun shrugs, clearly not wanting to get in the middle of those two and their mess.

“Sungyeol, tell him it’s awful,” Myungsoo says when Woohyun doesn’t back him up.

Sungyeol it seems has none of Woohyun’s reservations and shrugs, “Your husband, you tell him.”

Dongwoo frowns in confusion but doesn’t say anything before Myungsoo is pouting, “He’s just doing it to annoy me I know it,”

Hoya shrugs again. Myungsoo is probably right on the money.

“I need a drink,” Sunggyu sighs out loud. Usually he’d think it and not say it but he wants to stop Myungsoo and Hoya before they get any further into that weird bickering foreplay mood they slip in disturbingly often, “We all need a drink.”

“No,” Sunggyu is surprised that it’s Woohyun interjecting, “Last time I drank with you I fucking dreamed I saw Hoya and Sungyeol making out,” Woohyun says shuddering in revulsion.

Myungsoo starts laughing like a fucking hyena at that whilst Sunggyu looks at Woohyun curiously, “That was last week.”

“I know,” Woohyun says looking traumatised, “And who knows what I’ll see next time? Sungjong and Dongwoo having sex? You and Myungsoo locked in amorous embrace?” Woohyun asks sounding genuinely distressed at the idea

Sunggyu isn’t sure who looks more repulsed at that idea, Dongwoo or Sungjong. Sunggyu wants to laugh himself though.

“I think we should all be asking why your subconscious mind is picturing your team members in sexual situations,” Is Sungyeol’s dry contribution, “Is it trying to tell you something.”

“That Woohyun wants to have sex with us? Or watch us having sex?” Dongwoo asks, doing that fake wide eyed earnest thing that he enjoys so much. Sunggyu can’t stop himself laughing at that.

Woohyun’s face is bright red.

Sunggyu stifles a sigh. Worse than herding cats, he thinks with a private shake of his head.

 

 

 

♘♘♘

**00:08:12**

Sungjong doesn’t remember making the call. His brain feels too slow for what’s happening, like everything has been fast-forwarded and he’s been left behind to play catch up when time screeches back to a halt.

He blinks, and there’s a sharp, urgent knock at the door, and he feels rooted to the spot as Dongwoo opens the door for the two paramedics who have suddenly appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

Sungjong looks down at the phone he’s still holding. Something about Kei meeting them at the hospital. Oh. So that’s why she’s not here, and he can’t believe it’s taking his mind this long to process this. Maybe it’s the sight of Myungsoo, still splayed out on the floor where he fell, his head cradled between Hoya’s hands, that’s caused this unnatural sluggishness.

One of the medics, a kid who can’t be much younger than him, crouches down by Myungsoo’s side, taking his pulse and shining a light into his eyes even as he nods and listens to Hoya’s recounting of the events of past few days, redacted to say Myungsoo had been mugged in some dark alley.

Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Woohyun flinch, and shove his hands deep in his pockets, hunching in on himself like he wants nothing more than to disappear.

The second medic, a middle-aged man with a streak of grey in his hair and the same gentle look in his eyes that Sungjong can’t help but associate with Dongwoo, looks around the room at the six of them in various stages of hovering, and gently starts to instruct them on how they can help.

Right.

Moving the couch so the medics have room to bring the bed in. That makes sense, Sungjong can do that, he can focus his attention on a menial task while trying very hard not to pay attention to the hiss of oxygen as the younger medic places a mask over Myungsoo’s face.

He can pick up the ugly glass coffee table that digs into his palms until Sunggyu wordlessly lifts the other side of it, and try very hard not to pay attention to words like “GCS 3” and “intubate”. Welcomes the line of pain shooting through his hand as Sunggyu lowers his half a second too soon, and breathes through clenched teeth as the older medic adeptly slips a thin tube down Myungsoo’s throat.

His own hand comes up reflexively to rub at his neck, and he doesn’t know how Hoya is keeping it together, his fingers entwined with Myungsoo’s and another hand on his pulse even as he’s trying to stay out of the way of the medics.

Sungjong feels like everything is happening too fast.

He blinks again and someone must have gone to get the bed up because it’s here, and everyone’s offering to help lift Myungsoo onto it, and he can’t stop looking at Hoya’s eyes, how fiercely they shine even in the ambient lighting of their cramped living room.

There’s no question of course, Hoya will ride in the ambulance to the hospital.

He just wishes he could remember the actual discussion.

Time is skipping and hopping to the beat of Myungsoo’s heartbeat echoing shrilly on the monitor.

He blinks again, and they are gone. His eyes trail down to follow the breadcrumbs left behind: a discarded wrapper for the bag-valve mask, a pair of gloves, some bits of equipment he can’t quite identify, the flotsam and jetsam left behind after the flurry of activity.

Without the monitor, the silence seems deafening in the room, and it isn’t until Sungyeol suggest they all get ready to follow in the car that Sungjong feels like he can breathe again.

 

 

 

♟♟♟

“I’m worried about Sungyeol,” Myungsoo announces to Howon one evening as he returns back to their little apartment. They’d decided to stay with the team but Myungsoo had agreed with Howon that it was time they had their own space again so they’re in an apartment of their own, only five minutes from the building the others are all in.

“What’s wrong with Sungyeol?” Howon murmurs, not bothering to look up from his phone.

“I think he’s taking everything harder than we thought,” Myungsoo says in concern as he strips his outer layers and folds them. Howon always keeps their apartment ludicrously warm (probably so he can parade around in nothing but a tank top even during the height of winter - vain asshole) so the transition between the near-Siberian winter and the apartment is honestly unbearable.

“What things?” Howon still hasn’t looked up from his phone and Myungsoo gets the feeling he’s not listening properly.

Myungsoo huffs, taking his folded clothes through to the bedroom and stashing them away, changing into a pair of light track pants and ditching his wallet, keys and miscellaneous knickknacks.

When he makes his way back out to the living area, Howon is exactly where he left him, eyes glued to his phone though he’s chuckling slightly at something.

To his credit he does prompt Myungsoo, “What things,” again as soon as Myungsoo returns, but Myungsoo knows from experience how good Howon is at holding a conversation he’s not really paying attention to.

“Me almost dying, the weird dynamic in the team, Sungjong breaking up with him.” Myungsoo says, standing over Howon with his hands on his hips.

Unfortunately, Howon doesn’t even look up, not even at that last part which Myungsoo had said purely to get a response (though it wasn’t exactly inaccurate or anything either), “Oh, were they dating were they? That’s news to me, probably news to Yeol as well.”

“Would you listen to me instead of looking at your phone for five fucking seconds,” Myungsoo says in annoyance. He doesn’t mean to swear but it slips out.

“Sorry darling,” Howon says sarcastically as he puts the phone face down on the table and looks up at Myungsoo, “what were you saying?”

“I was saying that I’m worried about Sungyeol,” Myungsoo huffs, collapsing onto the couch next to Howon now that he knows Howon is paying attention to him.

“Because Sungjong dumped Sungyeol even though they weren’t dating?” Howon says frowning as if he’s confused. He’s clearly not confused though because you’d have to be blind to miss the awkwardness hanging between Sungjong and Sungyeol now.

“Well more like Sungjong stopped looking out for Sungyeol and trying to convince him to date him, I mean he was doing a pretty shitty job at the convincing, I don’t think Yeol noticed,”

“In Sungyeol’s defence he has been worked to the fucking bone all year,” Howon interjects quietly. Myungsoo knows this, he doesn’t need to tell Myungsoo this.

“Yeah, but he’s also not the most… Sungyeol doesn’t think he deserves love.” Myungsoo says equally as quietly, interlacing his fingers with Howon’s.

“Does that remind you of anyone?” Howon asks playfully but also seriously, squeezing his hand.

“You.” Myungsoo says. He’s not sure if Howon was talking about Myungsoo or himself, but it definitely reminds Myungsoo of Howon, “Well you six or so years ago at least.”

“You should have given Sungjong some tips then,” Howon says teasingly, letting go of his hand so he can shift himself on the couch, till his back is to the arm rest and his legs are stretched in front of him (across Myungsoo’s lap).

“I think part of the reason we ended up,” Myungsoo waves his hand around not sure what to say, what word to use, after all this time. Together never feels enough, “Was we were as broken as each other. Sungjong’s not broken.”

“Sungyeol’s not broken.” Howon says. It’d be a little bit annoying, Myungsoo thinks, that it sounds like his best friend needs defending against himself, but Myungsoo gets it.

“No, but he thinks he is.” Myungsoo says, “We thought we were. Sungjong knows he’s not.”

“Well, I suppose that’s true,” Howon shrugs his shoulders letting it go, “But Sungyeol never noticed that Sungjong was looking out for him because he wasn’t even considering someone could like him that much, since he didn’t think he deserved that.” Howon explains it like it’s that simple. It probably is that simple, “So why would Sungjong stepping back from that make any difference to Sungyeol?”

Myungsoo isn’t sure if Howon is testing him, or he really doesn’t see it, “Sungyeol doesn’t notice what’s changed but he’s noticed somethings changed. On top of everything else.”

“Myungsoo,” Howon tells him with a sigh, “You’ve just got to give Sungyeol time, not everyone likes talking their feelings out like you do. You can’t force people.”

“I forced you.” Myungsoo pouts at him.

“It took four years and some unconventional persuasion,” Howon raises an eyebrow. Yeah, Myungsoo remembers that fondly, “Which, waiting Sungyeol out is probably easier.”

“He’s spending all his time in the gym.” Myungsoo says. He’s adamant that Sungyeol needs their help.

“Well we both know that’s my chosen way of stress relief, I’m not sure I can judge.”

“This is Sungyeol, in the gym, and letting other people know. He didn’t pick the habit up as a teenager for safety,” Myungsoo says. There’s differences, Howon knows there are differences he needs to stop being so obtuse, “And besides you know I disapprove of your gym habit anyway.”

“Yeah,” Howon says with that comically stupid looking waggle of his eyebrows, “Your stress relief techniques are much healthier.”

“Stop talking,” Myungsoo says, moving so he’s mirroring Howon’s position against the other arm and tangling their legs together.

“You’re the one that wanted to have this conversation,” Howon tells him with a cheeky grin. It’s probably been his plan all along the idiot.

“I think we should do something.” Myungsoo says adamantly, “I think Sungyeol needs support even if he’s not going to ask for it before something goes wrong again.”

“Myungsoo,” Howon says, eyes softening as if he’s finally getting what this is about. It’s about Sungyeol.

“I’m just, last time we didn’t support each other things went to… bad,” Myungsoo admits, tucking his foot impossibly closer underneath Howon’s thigh, “And we don’t have the same outside pressure this time but I think, I think we could learn something from that.”

“Myungsoo,” Howon says again.

“Stop saying my name,” Myungsoo huffs in annoyance. He’s always liked the way Howon says his name but now is not the time.

“Myungsoo, Myungsoo, Myungsoo.” Howon says, sticking his tongue out at him, “Myungsoo.” Howon adds, just when Myungsoo thinks he’s finished.

Myungsoo digs his toe into the back of Howon’s thigh, making him flinch somewhat but not move his legs defiantly.

Myungsoo looks back equally as defiantly and eventually Howon sighs, “What do you suggest?”

“I think, for now, we just need to, uhh look out for him. Make sure he’s not working too hard. Intervene if he does work, if he does.” Myungsoo says with certainty. He just wants Howon to be on the same page as him, that’s all.

“Intervene?” Howon asks him with that weird eyebrow waggle again. Myungsoo really needs to train him out of that habit.

“Stop,” Myungsoo slaps his knee. Howon doesn’t, just reaches forward to haul Myungsoo so he’s sprawled half on top of Howon half off the couch.

Myungsoo huffs and rearranges himself so he’s lying on Howon more comfortably and it’s much better, “I just want Sungyeol to be okay. I…”

“I know,” Howon says soothingly, tracing circles on Myungsoo’s back with his palm, “I know.”

Howon knows. And that’s enough.

 

 

 

 

♖♖♖

**46:53:15**

When Myungsoo starts to shift restlessly in his hospital bed, like he’s about to wake up Dongwoo doesn’t think much of it.

Myungsoo has woken up a couple of times over the last two days, but every time he’s been so high off his face that he’s been talking total nonsense. The doctor had told them that he probably wouldn’t remember what he was saying, so they’d all been dealing with it in different ways. Hoya just seems grateful that Myungsoo is alive and has the capacity to speak even if it is total gibberish, Sungyeol has been recording the nonsense for ‘future entertainment value’ and Woohyun has been skulking around looking like the human embodiment of guilt.

After the first few times it had happened though most of them had stopped paying attention. Dongwoo is the only one even in the room at the moment since the doctor had told them Myungsoo probably wouldn’t be coherent until tomorrow. Even Howon had let Sungjong talk him into a change of clothes and a real meal (all he’d had to do was bat an eyelash and pout about how worried he was about Hoya. For someone so bad at acting, Sungjong certainly has the manipulation side of grifting down to an art).

Dongwoo puts his phone down and watches, wondering what Myungsoo is going to say this time as he shuffles his chair impossibly closer to the bed, so his knees are touching the mattress.

Myungsoo blinks into awareness slowly, turning his head to Dongwoo and continuing to blink slowly. Dongwoo knows though, almost straight away, that this time is different. This time is really Myungsoo.

Thats only confirmed when Myungsoo reaches out for him, hand dropping uselessly by his side. Myungsoo stares at it, as if he’s confused why his arm isn’t working properly (he probably is. Poor kid is surely confused).

Myungsoo opens his mouth and Dongwoo waits for his question, assuming it’s going to be something along the lines of ‘what happened?’ or ‘where are we?’.

It shouldn’t surprise him in the slightest when Myungsoo instead asks, “How’s Howon?”

Dongwoo doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry at that. Instead he’s sure he’s shooting fondness out his eyes, Dongwoo has always been sure that Myungsoo was going to be okay because Myungsoo is so strong. Still he didn’t realise until he saw him, properly saw him, that some part of him was expecting the worse.

Myungsoo blinks at him, expecting an answer and Dongwoo shakes his head, blinking back the few tears threatening to escape, “Okay all things considered. Worried for you but, he’s fine.” Dongwoo says, reaching out just to rest his hand over Myungsoo’s.

“That’s good,” Myungsoo says. He’s barely said four words but Dongwoo can hear he’s slurring them. He tries to think about the fact that it’s probably because of whatever drugs they’ve had him on, that it’s not the same as it was a few days ago. Dongwoo can’t quite erase the connection from his mind though.

“Yeah,” Dongwoo says before deciding he should probably text Hoya and let him know Myungsoo is awake. If he doesn’t Hoya might cut off his ears or something.

He fumbles his phone, almost dropping it on the floor, before deciding to text Sungjong instead. Once he’s done that he puts his phone away and looks at Myungsoo again.

“Hospital?” Myungsoo says. It’s just a word, but Dongwoo is pretty sure Myungsoo is asking if he’s in the hospital.

“Yeah,” Dongwoo says running his fingers over Myungsoo’s knuckles, “You,” he starts to say before correcting himself, knowing that Myungsoo would feel guilty over worrying everyone anyway, “They did quite a number on you.”

“Sore head.” Myungsoo says. Dongwoo doesn’t know if he’s telling Dongwoo his head is sore or if he’s guessing that’s why he’s in here - Woohyun did say he’d been complaining of a sore head the day he collapsed after all. This is where Hoya would help, the universe Myungsoo translator.

“Yeah,” Dongwoo says, not sure how else to respond to that.

He doesn’t have to because not two minutes after he’d texted Sungjong, Hoya is barrelling into the room. He stops just inside the doorway. Myungsoo turns his head ever so slowly to look at Hoya. Dongwoo can’t see his face anymore but he can see the moment Hoya truly realises Myungsoo is (relatively speaking) okay.

His face splits into one of the hugest smiles Dongwoo has ever seen and the tension leaks out of his body so suddenly and completely that Dongwoo is surprised he manages to stay on his feet at all. 

“Myungsoo,” He says, striding towards the bed so determinedly that Dongwoo scoots his chair back a little, even though Hoya is on the opposite side to the bed to him.

Dongwoo meets Sungjong’s eye over the top of the lovebirds with a wry smile, he feels awkward, like he’s intruding on an intimate moment or something, but he has no desire to leave Myungsoo. Not so soon.

Instead Dongwoo sits besides Myungsoo’s bed, as Hoya perches on the edge of it, watching all afternoon as the other members come and go as do various medical personnel. Much to Dongwoo’s relief Myungsoo’s words get stronger and longer, he’s still slurring slightly and having problems remembering some, as far as Dongwoo can tell, but the Doctor tells them that’s totally normal, that he could possibly recover all function relatively soon.

Dongwoo can tell how resolute Myungsoo is once he hear that, that he takes it as a challenge.

Hoya had said that Myungsoo was one of the strongest people he knew, less than a week ago but what feels like a lifetime. Dongwoo knows though that it’s true, that Myungsoo is going to do everything he possibly can to get better.

Dongwoo knows that the six of them (and Kei) are going to be behind him every step of the way.

Dongwoo knows that Myungsoo is going to be okay.

 

 

 

♘♘♘

Sungjong tries not to sigh as he balances on the shelves in the heavily guarded vault, Myungsoo standing just outside the door, rucksack full of children's toys in his hands. Usually Sungjong would be doing this job alone - replacing the heavily insured valuables in their targets safe with toys - but tonight he has company (not help because Myungsoo isn’t exactly helping).

Sungjong understands why no one wants Myungsoo out in the field yet, least of all Hoya, he really does.

What he doesn’t understand is why Myungsoo has been assigned to help him when he’s been doing this kind of simple swap since he was a teenager (Myungsoo is out of the way, Sungjong will give them that but honestly at the rate he’s going they’re both going to end up caught).

If Sungjong was someone who could get distracted, the way Myungsoo has kept a running commentary about how annoyingly overbearing Hoya is being would certainly be a distraction.

As it is, it’s an annoying background noise.

“Has he always been this overbearing? Honestly, it’s been months: I am fine I should be allowed to be doing things,” Myungsoo says, finally running out of air.

“You know it’s Sunggyu who decides who does what in these jobs, not Hoya,” Sungjong can’t help pointing out, just to be contrary (It is Sunggyu who probably would have been overprotective anyway, but pressure from Hoya would also be inevitable).

“Sunggyu isn’t the one hovering around me like a helicopter parent,” Myungsoo says. Sungjong isn’t looking at him right now but he’d bet money Myungsoo was pouting.

“You know you two really need to stop making parent comparisons about each other, that’s more about your kinks than any of us ever need to know,” Sungjong teases him primly, the opportunity too good to pass up.

“Fuck off,” Myungsoo says mildly, “There is no other comparison to make that covers it.”

“You almost died, Myungsoo,” Sungjong can’t help reminding him dryly. None of the rest of them can forget it (Sungjong still dreams about it sometimes and he’s never been one to dream), but Myungsoo seems awfully blasé about the whole thing, “I think he’s allowed to be concerned about you.”

“There’s concerned and there’s not letting me do anything,” Myungsoo says. Sungjong turns around to find that yes he is pouting and that he also has his arms crossed over his chest.

“You should know by now that’s just the way Hoya is,” Sungjong says, handing one of the priceless statues off to Myungsoo who carefully wraps it and puts it to the side, “He doesn’t have many people to care for.”

Sungjong doesn’t bother telling Myungsoo that Hoya used to be worse, or point out that Myungsoo is almost more overprotective (though Hoya’s never been seriously injured in their time on the team). He gets the feeling Myungsoo just wants to bitch.

“He could care in a way that wasn’t treating me like I was a toddler or made of glass,” Myungsoo grumbles, there he goes again with the creepy incest metaphors.

“Traumatic brain injury Myungsoo, Sunggyu probably wouldn’t let you do anything too dangerous even if Hoya wasn’t a factor,” Sungjong points out.

“It’s not the not letting me do dangerous things, it’s not letting me do anything,” Myungsoo pouts, digging around in his bag for a toy, “Do you think this is the right shape and weight?” He asks holding it up to show Sungjong.

Sungjong knows for a fact that Hoya isn’t ‘not letting Myungsoo do anything’ and Myungsoo is just complaining about it for the sake of complaining, but since he doesn’t actually want to be involved in this conversation he takes the out he’s given, “Looks about right to me, give it here,” Sungjong says reaching out for it.

Unfortunately, like the clumsy fucker he is, Myungsoo manages to drop it instead of passing it off to Sungjong. Sungjong reaches down as quickly as he can, praying that he can catch it and it won’t trigger the pressure sensitive alarms under the floor.

“Oh,” Myungsoo says frowning at the toy now in Sungjong’s grip as if it’s personally offended him, as if he can’t understand why it’s not in his hand anymore.

“Try to be a bit more careful, butterfingers,” Sungjong says dryly, “If you trigger an alarm I’m leaving you the fuck behind.”

“You wouldn’t,” Myungsoo says as Sungjong weighs the toy in his hand.

“It’s a bit light,” Sungjong says handing it back to Myungsoo who takes it so tentatively, like he’s afraid it’s going to jump out of his hands again. This is why Sungjong works alone (This is why he doesn’t understand Sunggyu sending someone who switched from being a thief because he was too clumsy to do this job), “Try the blue bear.”

“You wouldn’t because Hoya would be grumpy at you,” Myungsoo repeats confidently, frowning in immense concentration as he picks the bear up.

“I think given the situation he would understand,” Sungjong says smoothly.

He’s certain Myungsoo drops the teddy on purpose that time.

 

 

♟♟♟

**90:01:29**

Myungsoo is tired. No Myungsoo is exhausted.

Myungsoo has spent what feels like weeks but is actually only a couple of days in bed (a hospital bed is perhaps the worst kind of bed invented but it’s still a bed). He’s spent days in bed and yet he feels like he’s never slept a minute in his life.

If simply being awake is exhausting, any sort of movement what so ever is torturous to Myungsoo’s foggy mind. He’d rather just lie in bed and mope all day.

Unfortunately there are other plans for him.

Howon, and the others but mostly Howon, have barely left his bedside the entire time he’s been here and whilst he’s grateful for their support and love, he’s also so sick of pretending to be fine, and positive.

Of course there’s no way he’s not going to pretend, because he feels bad enough already about how much he worried and scared them.

What he would like though is just ten minutes to himself to lie in bed and rest. Maybe the reason he’s so exhausted is because he’s spending all his energy pretending. It’s a catch 22, a never ending cycle but the only thing he knows for sure is he’s never going to let any of his friends or Howon know how shit he feels.

He’s interrupted from his thoughts by the arrival of his least favourite person in the hospital.

Her name is Jaekyung and she’s been nothing but nice and encouraging to him. She’s also however his physiotherapist, and whilst he logically appreciates that physiotherapy is good for him, he also despises it.

Nothing makes him feel weak and pathetic like being unable to even walk unaided.

“Alright boys,” Jaekyung tells Howon and Sungjong, the two people keeping him company right now (They might be his favourite - them and Sungyeol - because they let him get away with one word answers and aren’t broadcasting their guilt. Myungsoo doesn’t blame anyone for this but SM and he’d really like to stop wasting his energy reassuring people about it), “Time to get lost.”

Sungjong gets up and leaves with very little complaint, just throwing a good luck over his shoulder.

The first time Jaekyung had kicked Howon out so they could do some work, Howon had looked like he was ready to kick up a storm. Jaekyung is the one person (besides Kei) at this hospital that doesn’t seem terrified of Howon though so she’d held her ground.

Howon hadn’t said anything but Myungsoo knows he’d been impressed, so he doesn’t argue this time. Instead as he stands up he quips, “I think someone should stick around just to make sure you’re not working Myungsoo too hard.”

“Out,” Jaekyung tells him pointing to the door, though Myungsoo is pretty sure she’s trying not to smile.

Howon goes but not before telling Myungsoo, “Try your hardest but please don’t beat yourself up if you can’t get there yet, okay?” leaving without giving Myungsoo a chance to reply (Myungsoo wouldn’t know what to say, is probably blushing. Howon would have known that, of course he would have).

He wanted a breather from his friends, but to think and relax just for a brief moment, not to embarrass himself so completely he never wants to leave the hospital.

“Protective boy you’ve got there,” Jaekyung tells him conversationally as she draws the blinds and shuts the door.

“All my friends are protective but can you blame them?” Myungsoo asks warily, unsure exactly what she’s implying there.

“No I suppose not,” She says coming back to his bedside, “Now, how are you feeling today? How were you feeling after yesterday’s session?” she asks him.

“A bit sore I think I need time to, to recover from yesterday.” Myungsoo says carefully. Another downside to being so exhausted is how much he has to think so carefully about words.

He’d never realised before how for granted he took the act of speaking, of being able to form sentences with minimal thought (as if the physiotherapy isn’t bad enough he has a speech therapist as well. Five minutes with her makes Myungsoo feel like the biggest idiot on the planet).

“Push through it,” She tells him ruthlessly, “You’ll feel better in the long run.”

He kind of wants to push her but he never would (and not just because he’s not sure he’d have the strength at the moment).Instead he wrinkles his nose at her as best he can right now.

She laughs, coming over to stand next to the bed, “You’re sitting up yourself today, that’s a good sign,” She says eyeing him appraisingly before holding her hands up in front of him just above his chest, “You know the drill. Push.”

Myungsoo doesn’t roll his eyes because that would be a waste of energy but he does sigh to let her know how unhappy he is with the whole thing. She ignores him (she’s probably seen people a lot less cooperative than Myungsoo - at least he hopes she has) and just puts him through the same exercises as every session, pushing on her hands to test his strength in a dozen different ways. Walking the length of the room (tomorrow he gets the embarrassment of walking the corridor which is something to look forward to).

Once what is quite possibly the longest hour of Myungsoo’s life is over and Jaekyung has helped him back to the bed he breathes a sigh of relief. He doesn’t have to see his speech therapist again today and Howon and Sungjong will probably take at least an hour to return so Myungsoo will have some peace and quiet.

Of course Jaekyung has to drop one final day ruining moment into it before she goes, “Now I think tomorrow you can start working with a Occupational Therapist.”

“What?” Myungsoo asks dumbly. He has no idea what that is but it can’t be worse than speech therapy.

“Occupational Therapist. She’ll basically help make sure you’re up for basic every day tasks likegetting dressed, brushing your teeth, that kind of thing,” Jaekyung tells him as she helps him settle back on the bed.

Myungsoo takes it back, that sounds much worse than speech therapy.

“I’m fine, I didn’t stroke, I’m young and h- fit like you keep saying. I can look after me,” Myungsoo says hating the fact that it takes him double the time it usually would to get that sentence out and it’s not even a particularly correct sentence. That isn’t exactly the definition of fine.

“It’s standard duty of care,” She tells him with a roll of her eyes (are doctors even allowed to roll their eyes at patients? Myungsoo thinks not).

“I have friends,” Myungsoo says as she starts to leave the room.

“Your friends don’t want to help you go to the bathroom and wash yourself,” Jaekyung tells him. They probably don’t but Myungsoo is sure they would.

“A stranger doesn’t either,” Myungsoo says.

“A stranger is paid your friends are not,” Jaekyung says, opening the door and effectively ending the argument. Myungsoo was just preparing his puppy eyes and everything, “Plus she’s not going to do it for you she’s going to help you. Tomorrow. So don’t worry about it until then,” She tells him kindly before leaving and closing the door behind her, leaving Myungsoo no room to argue.

Myungsoo sighs and tentatively rolls onto his side so that his back is to the door. Hopefully Howon and Sungjong understand the signal and leave him alone whenever they return.

He hates physiotherapy, hates the fact that things that should be easy as breathing are so fucking hard, that some of them he can’t even do properly anymore. Hates that he knows it’s necessary. Hates that he comes out of every session feeling broken and useless. Frustrated at himself. If he just tried a little harder, was a little better, maybe he would get there.

He’s interrupted from his internal moping (he’s self aware enough to know he’s moping he’s just not going to stop) by the sound of footsteps.

Myungsoo sighs, not even getting ten minutes to himself, before wiping at his eyes and turning painstakingly slowly, trying to to smile but just to seem okay.

“Good Afternoon beautiful,” Sungyeol crows cheerfully. Well that wasn’t at all who Myungsoo was expecting. He relaxes slightly.

“Hi,” He says softly.

“So,” Sungyeol says reaching into the bag that he’s got in his hand theatrically, “I’ve brought you a present,” he says pulling out a couple of packets of miscellaneous snacks. Myungsoo’s favourites.

“Gimme,” Myungsoo says, making grabby hands as best he can when his arms can’t really support their own weight every time without fail (He can do it most of the time, but he doesn’t want this to be the embarrassing moment their strength fails so he doesn’t try).

“I will, on one condition,” Sungyeol says waving them front of his face just outside his arms reach.

“What?” Myungsoo huffs.

“No stupid pretending to be stone for me,” Sungyeol says. Myungsoo’s feels his smile slip slightly, he thought he’d been doing an alright job all things considered. “You’re well you might be convincing Woohyun and Sunggyu but you’re not convincing me and you’re probably not convincing your boy. You’re allowed to be sad or frustrated or just really fucking tired,” Sungyeol tells him dragging the chair that Sungjong had been sitting in earlier closer to the bed and sitting in it.

That sounds like a pretty good deal to Myungsoo, food and not having to put so much energy into pretending. That’s of course why Sungyeol has done it but Myungsoo appreciates the gesture. He agrees

“You’re the best friend ever,” Myungsoo saysas Sungyeol hands the box over.

“Don’t let Hoya hear you say that,” Sungyeol jokes, kicking his feet up onto Myungsoo’s bed. Myungsoo considers pushing them off, but Sungyeol’s been so nice to him so he lets it slide.

“Oh Howon isn’t a very good friend,” Myungsoo says wanting to shake his head but then deciding better of it as he rips into the package.

Sungyeol looks at him with wide eyes as if Myungsoo has said something totally unbelievable.

“What?” Myungsoo says, “He’s kind of self-centred, if you disagree really unwilling to,” he Myungsoo stumbles, unable to get the word out. It’s both frustrating and embarrassing.

“Compromise,” Sungyeol offers as if it’s no big deal. Sungyeol really is the best person.

“Yeah. He does things his way always. He always knows best. Better to ask forgiveness than permission. Not a very good friend.” Myungsoo says. There’s so much more he could say but the less he says the less likely he is to stumble over a really fucking simple word (Not that Myungsoo is a particularly good friend himself either. It’s how they managed to stick together long enough to get together).

“I’ve never noticed,” Sungyeol says with a frown as if he’s wracking his brain.

Myungsoo fights the urge to smile, “That’s because you’re both on the same wave length so often,” he says. It amuses him sometimes, how similarly his best friend and Howon think and approach problems despite their vastly different background.

“What about you?” Sungyeol asks, looking down at his knees.

“Well, I’m not his friend, I’m his,” Myungsoo pauses again, not because he can’t get the word out this time but because he never knows exactly how to explain what Howon is to him. He’s just his Howon.

Sungyeol doesn’t know that clearly because he offers, “Lover, boyfriend, sugar daddy, husband, wife, soulmate, meal ticket?” Or maybe he does know and is being a shit.

“Yeah,” Myungsoo says with a little smile, “He cares about what I think but it took me ages to train him into it.”

“Train him like an unruly puppy?” Sungyeol laughs, clearly having some bizarre mental image. Myungsoo smiles.

“Yeah, something like that. Spray him with,” Myungsoo stumbles but doesn’t bother stopping, just substitutes in “ wet when he didn’t consider me.”

Sungyeol laughs, though it’s not that far off from the truth, metaphorically speaking. This probably isn’t what Sungyeol came in to visit Myungsoo intending to do. He playing along though and nothing makes Myungsoo feel more normal than bagging Howon anyway.

 

 

 

♔♚♔

Sunggyu never, ever knows what to expect when he’s been away from their base of operations for more than a day. Invariably someone has annoyed someone else, a prank war or a mild fight has broken out. The house ends up a mess. Worse if Dongwoo has been away with him.

Sungyeol had once pointed out, sarcastically though he wasn’t exactly wrong, they were like teenagers going wild when their parents left the house.

There is one thing he never expected to return to though.

He pushes the door to the current house open slowly, completely surprised to find that the house seems to be relatively neat. As he wanders through the house, that seems to be completely empty, he’s surprised to find that the whole house seems in relatively good shape - better than he left it.

He’s even more surprised to find Sungyeol, Woohyun and Sungjong sitting in silence in the upstairs living area. Hoya and Myungsoo haven’t been back long, so Sunggyu is surprised they’re not around, was sure they wouldn’t disappear again so soon.

“What are you doing?” Sunggyu asks, feeling like this quiet and clean house is actually not a blessing but some sort of prank. He hopes it’s a prank at least because the only other thing he can think of causing this sort of heavy silence is much, much worse.

“Trying not to die.” Sungyeol says at the same time Woohyun says,

“Making sure no one dies.”

Sunggyu is about to ask, he really is. Then the yelling starts.

It’s quite frankly awful. It’s not in any language he understands, but that doesn’t mean he can’t hear the emotion in the words. The viciousness.

The most surprising part of it all is that Sunggyu is ninety percent sure that it’s Myungsoo spitting out the words like it’s poison. It’s only Hoya that he could be yelling at because he knows Dongwoo is out (no one ever yells at Dongwoo anyway) and the other three are sitting right in front of him.

“What language is that?” Sunggyu asks curiously, knowing someone else in the room will know it. It sounds European, because European languages have never been his forte.

“French?” Woohyun guesses.

“It’s French.” Sungjong confirms with tight lips and a nod of his head.

“What are they saying?” Sungyeol asks curiously. There’s something forced in the way he says it though, like he’s upset they’re fighting (anyone should be upset they’re fighting - especially like this).

“You don’t want to know,” Sungjong says shaking his head. It takes a lot to rattle Sungjong, but he looks legitimately rattled right now.

Sunggyu really doesn’t want to know.

“How long have they been at this?” Sunggyu asks when Myungsoo stops and Hoya takes over. Hoya isn’t as loud, or as vicious, but he’s clearly angry.

“They’ve been yelling on and off for about fifteen,” Sungyeol says after exchanging a look with the others, “They were both in there when I got back.”

“Myungsoo has been acting really pissy all morning, like passive aggressive,” Woohyun offers. Sungjong is still too disturbed by whatever they’re actually saying to actively contribute to the conversation, “They could have been not-yelling arguing for hours.”

“Does anyone know what they’re actually arguing about?” Sunggyu asks, looking straight at Sungjong who clearly understands what they’re saying (who knew they had so many French speakers around these parts).

“Myungsoo is really, really pissed off about a girl?” Sungjong says with a shake of his head, “They’ve mostly just been yelling insults to be honest”

Sunggyu knows they could (and should) all leave or at least pretend that they’re not listening but none of them do. Instead they sit and listen.

Eventually they switch to Korean, “Lee Howon,” Myungsoo shrieks at an ungodly decibel, “I’m not going to fucking watch you get yourself killed.”

“Well you don’t have to stick around and do it then do you, since you clearly don’t trust me,” Hoya shoots back. Ouch.

“It’s not you it’s her.” Myungsoo screams, “That cheating, lying, murderous fucking abomination of a woman. I won’t let you do that.”

“Well I’ve known her a fuck long longer than I’ve known you,” Hoya shoots back before going in for the kill, “So maybe I don’t give a shit what you’ll let me do.”

There’s silence before Myungsoo says, quieter, but still loud enough they can all hear it, “You’re picking her over me.”

“I’m not picking anything. It’s not a choice, it’s got nothing to do with you,” Hoya says.

There’s low murmurs, the two of them clearly arguing but not yelling anymore. Sunggyu thinks maybe they’ve made up and he can go do something constructive but then.

“Don’t make me choose Myungsoo, don’t get so fucking self-absorbed because maybe you won’t fucking like the answer I give.”

Sungyeol gasps at that, Sunggyu feels like doing the same.

There’s the sound of something smashing and breaking before the door slams open and Myungsoo stalks past them all, slamming the front door behind him.

The four of them exchange looks, wondering if someone needs to go check on Hoya. Eventually Sunggyu decides to take one for the team and hesitantly walks towards the room.

He’s not that surprised to see Hoya sitting on the floor shattered glass all around him.

He looks up at Sunggyu looking utterly defeated, blood running down his cheekbone.

Sunggyu has no idea what to say or do to him, so he says the first thing he can think of, “I’ll get the broom.”

There’s a reason this is Dongwoo’s forte and not his.

 

 

♙♙♙

**165: 07: 33**

Woohyun isn’t entirely sure what drove him to come and check on Myungsoo right in this moment so urgently, he knows that Hoya is constantly with him, that the others had been drifting in and out during visiting hours but something about this moment seemed important. He needed to see with his own two eyes that Myungsoo was alive.

Now that he’s here at the hospital he feels stupid, of course Myungsoo is alive. Myungsoo is very much alive and conscious and awake, Woohyun thinks as he hovers in the doorway near his room. He can see in but he assumes Myungsoo can’t see out.

Even if Myungsoo could see out he wouldn’t be looking. Instead all his attention is focused on his lap, where Hoya is curled up seemingly fast asleep. It’s the softest and most vulnerable Woohyun has ever seen him (perhaps the first time Woohyun would ever use the world soft to describe Hoya).

Myungsoo is looking down at Hoya, threading his fingers through his hair and looking fonder than any human being as the right to look.

Woohyun doesn’t know how he got it so wrong. How he thought they were anything other than two strong equals entirely dedicated to each other.

“The mistake you made,” Sungyeol tells him coming up behind him undetected and making him jump, “was thinking that just because Myungsoo’s dedication was louder and flashier that it was stronger than Hoya’s devotion.”

Woohyun knows that now, thinks back to the previous conversation he’d overheard between the two (he should really just stop coming to check on Myungsoo) of how desperate Hoya had standard.

“It’s not,” Woohyun says as he watches them. He realises it now, “Hoya’s devotion is quieter but hotter, burning him from the inside.”

“Well,” Sungyeol says as he claps Woohyun on the shoulder, “You’re not wrong but your metaphors could use some work, that was a little bit cliche and a lot wanky.”

Then he’s walking past Woohyun and into the room like he hadn’t just seen one of the most telling displays of human intimacy Woohyun has ever seen.

Myungsoo looks up at Sungyeol with a bright smile, as if he hadn’t been interrupted from something important as Sungyeol leans over to give Myungsoo a tentative hug (for all his talk Sungyeol is so careful with Myungsoo as if he’s afraid he;s going to break. Maybe he is afraid - Sungyeol had been one of the only ones to actually see Myungsoo faint).

The two of them look at Hoya, saying something cheeky probably by the way Myungsoo giggles. Smiling brightly like he hadn’t just had his whole soul on display for anyone to see.

Maybe that’s what Woohyun is most envious of. The fact devotion and intimacy is so common to them that it’s not a special moment.

Woohyun turns on his heel and walks away.

 

 

♝♝♝

POST COMEBACK AGAIN JOB : AUGUST 2010

It goes without saying that everyone is curious as to how Sungjong knows a character as colourful as ‘Hoya’. It also goes without saying that Sungjong has no intention of telling them how he knows Hoya.

That doesn’t stop everyone from asking.

Sungyeol’s pretty sure Sungjong isn’t annoyed by the asking, purely because he’s having so much fun with his answers. All four of them get a different one.

Sungyeol’s thinks he’s given as close to the truth as Sungjong is going to give, a vague “he’s an old friend”.

Woohyun gets some ridiculously spun story about 10 year old Hoya saving 6 year old Sungjong from the Yakuza with a soccer ball, a school bag and a child’s pinwheel.

Sungjong really goes all out on Dongwoo and Sunggyu though. Dongwoo gets told that Hoya is Sungjong’s beloved older brother, which of course Dongwoo believes.

Sungjong refuses to tell Sunggyu anything for the longest time, until Sunggyu manages to ‘trick’ Sungjong into revealing that Hoya is an illicit lover, a secret fiancé. Sunggyu is so proud of that win he rubs it in Sungyeol’s face.

Sungyeol just smirks in response, knowing exactly what Sungjong is setting up here, and they deserve it, Dongwoo and Sunggyu both the noisiest in vastly different ways.

Sungyeol’s slightly surprised they don’t compare stories at any point, being as close as they are, but considering the hilarious outcome it produces, Sungyeol is glad they didn’t.

Sungyeol isn’t sure what started the conversation, all he knows is that Woohyun and him are minding their own business quietly conferring over some details for the next job (Sungyeol is pretty sure it’s going to go badly. Really badly, but of course Sunggyu’s not going to listen to him about it), when Sunggyu starts yelling.

The two of them exchange a look before they bolt off in search of the source, “I do not care how fucked up your childhood was you cannot sleep with your brother,” Sunggyu is screeching when they find the other three in the kitchen.

Dongwoo is standing behind him looking incredibly bemused, whilst Sungjong sits on the breakfast bar looking bored, which is is default expression.

“Whose sleeping with their brother?” Sungyeol asks in confusion peering over Woohyun’s shoulder (inconsiderate ass had stopped right in the middle of the doorway)

“Their biological brother or their like, ‘brother’?” Woohyun asks, complete with air quotes and everything.

Sunggyu turns to Sungjong, “Actually that’s a good question. Sungjong, are you sleeping with your biological brother?”

Sungyeol snorts, suddenly having a very good idea where this is going (or has gone?). Woohyun shoots him a questioning look so he leans in and whispers, as Sunggyu continues to rant “I think they’re talking about Hoya. Sungjong told Sunggyu he was his lover and Dongwoo that he was his brother,” he explains.

Woohyun looks up at him with a grin, “Cheeky. No wonder he’s always getting the upper hand in your little prank wars.”

“Just you wait,” Sungyeol mutters as the show goes on, “One day I’ll figure out how to leverage his family history and he won’t know what hit him.”

Woohyun looks intrigued by the mention of Sungjong’s family (oops) but doesn’t interrogate Sungyeol thankfully because Sunggyu and Dongwoo have finally figured out what Sungjong did.

“So he’s not your secret husband or your brother,” Dongwoo says which, finally, they’ve arrived at this point.

“I didn’t say that,” Sungjong says coolly, “I said he’s not my brother _and_ lover.” Sungyeol honestly wishes he was as good at keeping a straight face as Sungjong was, it’s his biggest pranking weapon.

“I don’t think he’s your lover.” Dongwoo says with a nod as if that settles it, “And he doesn’t look enough like you to be your brother.”

“Not all siblings look alike,” Sungyeol can’t help pointing out, even though he knows that Sungjong is an only child.

“No, I just know they’re not siblings.” Dongwoo says.

“I thought Hoya and L were like, a thing,” Sungyeol says, appraisingly. He’s no body language expert like Woohyun, but they were broadcasting pretty strongly as far as he was aware, “They seemed to be.So you’re probably not dating him. Unless you’re into that polyamorous thing?” he can’t help but ask Sungjong teasingly.

Sungjong shrugs. Probably just to keep up his ‘cool’ persona but with Sungjong you seriously never know.

“You had no idea who L was,” Woohyun points out coolly. That’s a good point, why hadn’t Sungyeol thought of that point, “So you’re probably not polyamorying him,”

“I don’t think polyamorying is a word,” Is Dongwoo’s helpful and cheerful contribution.

Woohyun is probably rolling his eyes, Sungyeol wouldn’t know he’s still stuck behind him in the doorway, but he doesn’t make a comment.

“You didn’t ask me if I was in a polyamorous relationship with them,” Sungjong says flipping his hair in a way that should look dumb but doesn’t, “Just if I was ‘into that polyamorous thing’.” That is another good point.

“I don’t want to know,” Sunggyu mutters looking all the world like he’s going to leave the room. He probably should know the romantic entanglements of his team (if any) in case they bring some sort of conflict of interests into place. He should also be glad there are none, that Sungyeol knows of, in the team.

“But knowing whether or not they’re together might be pertinent to a job in the future,” Dongwoo pipes up with a smile at his friend.

“I don’t think we’ll be seeing them again, for a job in the future” Sunggyu argues with a sigh, but he leans against the kitchen counter, settling himself again. Clearly he’s as interested as the rest of them.

“I wouldn’t count on that,” Dongwoo says cheerfully. Sungyeol has no idea if he knows something (probably not) or if it’s just one of those things he has a feeling about - Dongwoo has ‘feelings’ about lots of things as Sungyeol has come to learn.

“How are you going to find out if they’re together?” Sungjong asks with an elegantly raised eyebrow. Sungyeol wishes he could raise a single eyebrow, but when he tries he just ends up lifting both of them and looking comical. Maybe he could ask Sungjong for tips or something.

“You’re going to tell us?” Sungyeol asks Sungjong, finally having enough of Woohyun’s lurking and pushing him into the kitchen. Woohyun stumbles but doesn’t fall, as Sungyeol goes to sit at (but not on) the breakfast bar with Sungjong.

“Fat chance,” Sungjong snorts.

“Why not?” Dongwoo asks, bouncing on the ball of his feet.

Sungjong sighs, “Because I don’t know.” He says, which is very clearly a total lie, and Sungyeol’s not even the ‘body language’ expert that Woohyun is.

“As if,” Woohyun snorts, echoing Sungyeol’s thoughts.

“How am I meant to know?” Sungjong asks with a shrug, the ‘please explain’ evident in his voice.

“Um, because you call Hoya hyung, which means you must be at least close to him,” Woohyun says taking a seat next to Dongwoo at the kitchen table finally.

“I’ve also never seen L before, as you so kindly pointed out earlier,” Sungjong says, crossing his arms over his chest and fixing Woohyun with a glare that would probably make a lesser man cower in his boots or something, “And anyway aren’t you meant to be the body language expert.”

“Yeah but other grifters are a bit harder to get a read on,” Woohyun says. Admitting he’s not perfect is probably causing him physical pain, “Plus those two were super erratic with what they were broadcasting.”

“I thought you were meant to be the best grifter out,” Sunggyu speaks up for the first time since this conversation devolved, “Maybe I should sack you and recruit this L if he can fool the mighty Nam Woohyun.”

Dongwoo bursts into laughter at that and Sungyeol can’t help but chuckle as well, mostly at the pure outrage present on Woohyun's face

 

♟♟♟

**228:14:08**

Myungsoo isn’t sure yet how he feels about his near death experience.

He’s not entirely sure it was a near death experience, he could have died he’s well aware of that, but he doesn’t feel like he came that close to death.

That might just be the fact he was unconscious for the entire ordeal though and since then he’s been so focused on recovery and facades and guilt.

It clearly was a stressful ordeal if the way Howon has refused to leave his side suggests anything. Everyone else has been coming and going (because six visitors in the step-down unit is pushing it even with the hospital director’s niece in their corner) but Howon hadn’t left once in the nine days he’s been here.

One thing having Kei’s inside connection has done though is mean that no one has suggested Howon leaves, even during the evenings, not after the one nurse that had suggested it on the first night.

He’s pretty sure she’s told all the other nurses that she thinks Howon is dangerous because he’s heard the other nurses gossiping about it. They all think she’s over exaggerating, think Howon is just cute and protective. Myungsoo finds that very amusing.

The hospital is as quiet as a hospital ever is now, in the hour just after the sun has started to rise. He’s going to be discharged today, finally the doctors have determined they think there’s going to be no long lasting effects (he’s not sure Howon agrees but that just means Howon is going to be keeping a closer eye on him than usual and Myungsoo is in no way opposed to that).

“Hey,” Howon says from where he’s sitting at the bottom of Myungsoo’s bed, like a guard dog looking out for another SM attack or something, “Are you awake.”

“Yeah,” Myungsoo says, voice coming out croakier than he’d like. It makes Howon smile though, the soft light making his face look, Myungsoo doesn’t have a word for it. It’s nice. It’s home, “I’ve slept too much.”

“There’s never too much sleep in recovery,” Howon says.

“I don’t think there is a word in any language to describe how,” Myungsoo pauses, trying not to be frustrated at the fact the word won’t _come_ and just changing his word choice, “big of a hypocrite you are.” Myungsoo tells him softly, not wanting to disturb the softness of the room.

“I’ve never had a traumatic brain injury,” Howon says, shuffling up closer to Myungsoo on the bed so he’s sitting level with his hip rather than his feet, “Or come as close to dying as you have.”

Myungsoo knows that’s categorically not true, but Howon’s eyes look so, so terrified every time he mentions Myungsoo almost dying that he feels like it’s probably safer not to point it out.

Instead he says, “I didn’t die though, I’m okay.”

Howon looks at him, really looks at him with a look that is heart-breaking. If Howon looked shattered when they rescued him, when he confessed how useless he felt with Myungsoo, then there’s no words to describe how broken he looks now.

“Hey, please don’t look at me like that,” Myungsoo reaches out for Howon, unsurprised that Howon is suddenly there in his space.

“Like what?” Howon asks as Myungsoo reaches up to cup his cheek.

“Like your whole world has fallen apart,” Myungsoo says. That’s not the best way to describe it but it’s the only way he can, can’t articulate exactly how Howon looks. Just knows he never wants to see that look again.

“It did, for a few hours I honestly thought I’d lost you. Gotten you back only to actually lose you.” Howon admits. He’s not crying, Myungsoo has only seen Howon cry twice that he can think of, but there’s definitely moisture in his eyes, “And this would have actually been on me because it was so fucking obvious that you weren’t okay and I didn’t notice.”

“You were busy, you had stuff to do for Sunggyu, you barely saw me.” Myungsoo says. As soon as he says it, Howon draws away, leaving Myungsoo’s hand hanging in mid-air. Clearly that was the wrong thing to say.

“Come back,” Myungsoo demands, making a grabby hand with his suspended arm. Howon smiles, slightly, but does oblige. Howon grabs Myungsoo’s hand as it starts to fall.

“I know Sunggyu was lying when he said he sent you somewhere that first day,” Myungsoo says, because he had known. He knows Howon, has lived with him what feels like his entire life (the only parts of his life that matter), knew that Howon needed time to process things, “But that second day you really had things to do and I understand and it doesn’t matter because I am here, and the surgery went off without a hitch and I’m safe.”

“That’s not good enough.” Howon says, anger seeping into his voice. He’s angry at himself, but Myungsoo still feels cowered, just a little, “I wasn’t there for you and because of it you almost died and how am I meant to live with that?” His words go from anger to pleading quicker than Myungsoo can process.

He’s playing with the chain around his neck. Myungsoo hadn’t noticed it before, but he must have been wearing it, or at least had it on his person this whole time. That, more than anything tells Myungsoo how worried Howon must have been - he only ever wears it when they’re separated for a job that could be dangerous for one or both of them (Howon had told him once that it was reassuring, almost as good as having Myungsoo with him).

“I love you,” Myungsoo tells him straight up. He doesn’t say it often because Howon, has issues with the phrase, but it’s true. There has never been a truer statement to pass his lips, “I love you so much that it hurts, and it especially hurts me to see you blaming yourself for this and I’m scared that if you blame yourself you’ll pull away from me,” He says, squeezing Howon’s hand but looking back at the bed.

That’s the way it works, he knows that from experience.

“I would never,” Howon tells him fiercely, squeezing his hand so tightly it hurts, “I’ll never pull away from you I couldn’t if I wanted to. It’s the exact opposite, you’ll be 80 and I’ll still be there,” he says it like it’s a bad thing but Myungsoo can’t even concentrate on that.

He thinks this is the first time Howon has ever, ever talked about the future in a non-immediate way. For years Myungsoo has been afraid that Howon has always thought he’d go out young in the blaze of glory, it’s the first time he’s talking about growing old with Myungsoo.

Howon peers at him suspiciously, “What do you have that crazy grin on for? Do I need to call a doctor?”

He doesn’t sound particularly worried though, more teasing.

Myungsoo throws his arms around Howon not caring he’s probably disrupting some sort of important machine, “That’s the best thing I have ever heard.” Myungsoo whispers into Howon’s shoulder, “You’re not ever allowed to leave me if you can’t help it.”

“Right back at you,” Howon says squeezing him tight. God Myungsoo knows that he came closer to Howon losing him than he’d ever thought possible, but that just makes him want to never let Howon out of his sight ever again. To reassure Howon, and reassure himself.

“Let’s go,” Howon says, with sparkle that’s Myungsoo hadn’t even realised had been missing from his eye. It’s not as bright as it usually is but it’s back and that’s so fucking important.

“You know we can’t,” Myungsoo tells him sad and frustrated at the situation all round. He wants nothing more than to go with Howon and get away from it all, forget the fact the last month has happened. Nothing more than for his words to work again.

“We could go,” Howon says, understanding what he meant even though Myungsoo’s stupid brain hadn’t let him finish the sentence. Myungsoo can tell that his heart really isn’t in it though, “Leave now, leave as soon as you’re officially discharged, get on that plane to New Zealand. We could do it. I want to do it.”

“We could, but can’t.” Myungsoo says regretfully, because Howon very rarely demands selfish thing, “Because if we do we might not have a team to come back to.”

He doesn’t think that the team is going to pull itself apart - as Sungyeol pointed out a week ago (a lifetime ago) if they survived the period after the BTD job then they’ll be able to survive this.

Especially since Sungyeol is a lot more repentant about his actions here than Myungsoo had been after that job.

He also knows though that the team are going to need Myungsoo around to prove he’s okay. Woohyun’s going to need Howon around to reassure him that they’re okay, that Howon doesn’t actually blame him and isn’t going to punch him again (if Woohyun pulls back from Howon after this that might be the biggest tragedy of this ordeal).

“You are a better person than any of us deserve,” Howon says with a smile that’s sad but resigned, “Except maybe Dongwoo.”

“You might not deserve me,” Myungsoo teases Howon playfully, “But you’re stuck with me for at least another 50 years. You just said, no takesies backsies.”

The smile that Howon sends him at that small but sincere is probably going to power his heart for 50 years, “No takesies backsies”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_I know when you're weakest_  
_You know where my demons hide_  
_Put us on a knife edge  
_ _Tell 'em everything inside_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was supposed to be the Myungsoo chapter but then it ended up so Hosoo that I decided that would be the theme of the chapter because Soo deserved a chapter for him not just his relationship. So I added another chapter onto this story is anyone surprised (honestly at this rate this story will never finish - it really should be three separate stories LBH).
> 
> Next chapter will be much less heavy on these two I promise! I couldn't help myself this time :3
> 
> Also, heads up next Sunday is Christmas Day and I'm not sure the chapter will get up on Christmas so next week's update might be Monday or very late Sunday evening :) [The week after that New Year falls on a Sunday so that might be a Monday posting as well xD]


	18. Chapter Twelve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, look who finally remembered there are characters other than Hoya and Myungsoo feat Sungyeol cameos in this fic!
> 
> But for the first time ever this chapter ended up way too short, so I've thrown a pre-written scene in there that's tenuously, tenuously related -I rewrote it a bit to feature Gyu more heavily but it's still pretty obvious which one it is xD. Without it the chapter was way too short though and with Christmas I didn't have time to come up with an idea for another scene and write it (except the chapter was still too short so I've also thrown in a little Xmas Bonus scene I wrote in half an hour at 11pm last night so yeah xD).

**Chapter 12: Sunggyu**

 

_When you spend most of your time getting inside the minds of bad people, looking for their flaws and their weakness, then it’s pretty much all you see. In everyone._

 

♔♚♔

 

Sunggyu wraps his scarf tighter around his face, looking over his shoulder once, twice, three times just to be sure that no one is following him.

Not that he thinks his team cares at all where he goes when they’ve got time off, no job in the works, but he really doesn’t want to be caught out on the off chance one of his team members is around. Not right now. Not when he’s doing something that if he were to be found out, wouldn’t make Dongwoo happy. At all. 

Once he’s sure there’s no one who would recognise him around, friend or teammate or foe, he ducks his head down and enters the out of the way, dingy looking bar.

No one inside the busy but not packed bar pays him a second glance, but he still doesn’t remove his scarf. Instead he scans the room looking for the person he’s meeting.

He finds her quickly, sitting in the back of the room two full Peronis sitting on the table in front of her, condensation making rings around the bases of the bottles on the worn table top.

She spots him as he makes his way over to her.

“I take it Dongwoo doesn’t know you’re here?” she asks him with a cocked eyebrow as he sits down opposite her. 

“None of my team know I’m here,” Sunggyu says, taking his gloves and hat off but keeping his scarf on to disguise his face a little.

“So you mean no one knows where you are?” She asks, leaning back in her seat slightly, “I could kill you and get away with it.”

Sunggyu barks out a laugh at that, “You wouldn’t.” 

“You seem very sure of that.” 

“If you didn’t poison me when we practically lived out each other’s pockets, I think I’m safe now,” Sunggyu tells her honestly. That and Ailee probably couldn’t hurt a fly (as long as that fly hadn’t threatened her or her loved ones first).

Ailee smiles, “I’d never say we lived out each other’s pockets, you and Dongwoo lived out each other’s pockets, I was just along for the ride.”

“You were along for the ride?” Sunggyu says trying not to outright snort in disagreement because that would be rude (It’s still the least true statement Sunggyu has ever heard in his life).

“Well,” Ailee shrugs with a little grin. It quickly slides off her face, “How is he?” 

Sunggyu purses his lips, trying to decide how honest to be. Ailee deserves honestly, deserves to know, but Sunggyu already feels like he’s doing something inherently wrong just being here even though he’s not. Being honest with Ailee would feel like betraying Dongwoo’s trust.  

“Haven’t you asked him yourself?” Sunggyu asks, to buy himself time. He’s well aware that Ailee and Dongwoo haven’t seen each other in years.

“Oh, I have,” Ailee says shocking Sunggyu. She laughs at the look on his face, “I haven’t- I haven’t seen him,” She says looking down steadfastly at the table, “You know what he’s like but, I haven’t. I couldn’t have gone this long and not heard from his own mouth that he’s alright.” 

Sunggyu had thought Dongwoo was contacting Ailee, he’s not exactly subtle, but it’s interesting to have it confirmed from Ailee herself (because Dongwoo never would), “I’ve gotten messages to him once or twice in the few years you’ve been gone, but how is he?”

Sunggyu feels guilty. Sunggyu always feels guilty when thinks of everything that Dongwoo is missing out on because he followed Sunggyu’s spontaneous half crazed plans with barely a second thought, but having Ailee here in front of him, as a physical reminder, makes that guilt impossible to ignore.

“I need a drink,” Sunggyu says, grabbing one of the beers off the table. 

Ailee doesn’t say anything, just watches him with appraising eyes, “I thought you might.” There’s judgement in her tone, judgement but understanding.

“Dongwoo won’t drink with me,” Sunggyu says once he’s drained half the bottle. 

“Can you blame him?” Ailee asks him. Sunggyu doesn’t say anything, just chooses to continue to drink instead. 

 “Dongwoo is,” Sunggyu says, once he’s drained the bottle completely, “Dongwoo.”

“You remain as straightforward and helpful as ever Sunggyu,” Ailee tells him dryly. Sunggyu tries not to pull a face at her.

“Dongwoo is… He misses you guys, his family, his friends,” Sunggyu says because that much is true and anyone who had ever met Dongwoo would be able to guess that much, “He’s good for us, for the team. Not just smoothing over conflict but, just, brightening morale, reminding us what morality is. He doesn’t even have to do anything and we’re better for him being there.”  

“Dongwoo is still Dongwoo then,” Ailee says, repeating his words from earlier, “Is he happy?”

“I don’t know,” Sunggyu admits honestly, struggling to figure out how to answer that. Ailee slides the second beer bottle towards him and he drinks it quicker than the first, “I don’t think he’s unhappy,” Sunggyu says eventually. Dongwoo’s not very good at hiding emotions, especially when he’s upset, “But I don’t know if he can be happy when he’s missing such an important part of his life.”

Ailee considers him carefully, “Do you expect all the other members of your team to be happy all the time?”

 “No, but-” Sunggyu says.

 Ailee cuts him off, “Then stop expecting Dongwoo to always be happy. We both know despite appearances he never was.” 

“I dragged him into this mess,” Sunggyu says. He knows he gave Dongwoo a choice, but given the circumstances did he really?

“You’re doing that thing where you underestimate Dongwoo again,” Ailee points out, sounding almost disappointed, “You cannot make him do things he doesn’t want to do Sunggyu, you never have been able to.”

“I know that, but he’s burned all his bridges now,” Sunggyu says. He’s not sure where this melancholy feeling has come from, why he’s spilling it all out at Ailee but she always has been easy to talk to. That and it’s nice to talk to someone that’s not relying on him to have it together all the time.  

“Sunggyu. If Dongwoo didn’t want to be there he wouldn’t be there.” Ailee tells him as if the conversation is over, “Maybe he wouldn’t come back to us because he wants to protect us, but he wouldn’t stay somewhere he was unhappy. Besides,” Ailee smiles, something of a sad but fond smile, “The way he talks about that team of yours, he really loves them.”

“Love wasn’t enough last time,” Sunggyu says, regretting the words as soon as they leave his mouth, especially when Ailee flinches, “I just mean, he loves his family more than anything in this world and we can’t compare to that.” 

“But you have something that made him want to leave us in the first place, before he had people to care about besides you.” Ailee tells him.

“I guess,” Sunggyu says, picking at the label of the beer bottle. 

“Did you just want to meet with me to soothe your guilt?” She asks him eventually, when it becomes clear that Sunggyu is done for now, “Or was there something else that couldn’t have been done over the phone? Because right now I’ve got to tell you that you’re kind of wasting my time.”

“I could really use your help with something,” Sunggyu says, “But first I need another drink.” 

Or eight.

 

 

 

♘♘♘

THE  BEFORE THE DAWN JOB: FEBRUARY 2011

 

Sungjong knows, everyone knows, that Sunggyu is not happy. Saying Sunggyu is not happy is probably an underestatement of epic proportions. Sunggyu is livid. Sunggyu is pissed, Sunggyu looks like he’s twelve seconds away from blowing a gasket of some kind.

Sunggyu is not at all happy with Myungsoo for going off script, and as soon as Woohyun and Myungsoo are safely out of prison and the target has been taken down, Sunggyu lets them know. 

Sungjong is pretty sure there’s no word in any language to accurately describe Sunggyu’s anger. It’s flashy and on show and quite obvious born from the fact that Sunggyu’s authority and leadership was challenged. There’s also the fact Myungsoo seriously fucked up the plan, made things so much harder for everyone, but Sunggyu is taking it personally.

“What the fuck was that?” Sunggyu asks Myungsoo as soon as he’s back at the base; he’s not exactly civil but he’s not yelling yet, so this is already going better than Sungjong expected. Dongwoo and Woohyun are off tying together the loose ends, making sure the arrests go through as planned, so there are only the five of them in the room.

Sungjong is surprised Sunggyu didn’t wait until they were all there to tear Myungsoo down, remind the team ‘who’s in charge’ but maybe he couldn’t wait. 

“That was a successfully completed job,” Myungsoo says serenely. Sungyeol, sitting behind his computers as always (using them as a shield) hides a snort into his hand. The corner of Hoya’s mouth twitches up, just slightly, and it’s probably a good thing he’s standing slightly behind Sunggyu so Sunggyu can’t see his face, “Unless you mean whatever Sungyeol is wearing in which case I have no idea.” 

“Don’t drag me into this, asshole,” Sungyeol hisses, hunching further over so his head is completely obscured by the computer (though he’ll probably be right back to rubbernecking as soon as it’s not about him anymore). 

“Why did you try to kill Woohyun?” Sunggyu asks trying and failing to keep his voice steady. At least Sungjong assumes he’s trying to keep his voice steady, Sunggyu likes to pretend to be in control.

“I didn’t try to kill Woohyun,” Myungsoo says, despite the fact they’ve basically got video evidence to prove it.

“It kind of looked like you were trying to kill Woohyun,” Sungyeol’s head pops up to interject. Of course Sungyeol can never keep himself out of the thick of things.

“Well I wasn’t trying to kill him,” Myungsoo sounds petulant now, crossing his arms over his chest and almost pouting. 

“Then what the fuck were you doing?” Sunggyu grits out between his teeth. Sungjong is surprised that Sunggyu has been able to keep it (relatively) together this long. Especially considering how aggressive he’d been towards Hoya when Myungsoo first went off script. 

“I was improving the plan,” Myungsoo says.

“It’s not your fucking job to improve the plan,” Sunggyu spits out, voice now raising in volume. This is what Sungjong was expecting, “It’s your job to do what I fucking say.”

“Well your plan was flawed,” Myungsoo says confidently. Sungjong can’t believe he just said that, neither can Sungyeol judging by the way his eyes sort of bulge out of his head. Hoya still looks like he hasn’t had this much fun in forever.

Sunggyu on the other hand looks like he’s seriously considering throwing something at Myungsoo (Sungjong gets the feeling that if Hoya wasn’t here Sunggyu might have actually done it).

“The only flaw in my plan was the fact I trusted you to get a job done,” Sunggyu snaps. Sungyeol flinches, Myungsoo blinks owlishly and Hoya does nothing.

 Now that’s perhaps the most unexpected thing here.

“Sometimes things go wrong and you have to improvise,” Myungsoo says insistently. He has a point, he has a very good point, but Sunggyu isn’t going to like it.

“Yes, when things go wrong you tell me so I can come up with another plan or fix our current plan or put one of the contingency plans into effect,” Sunggyu is still, Sungjong doesn’t even know how to explain what he’s doing. He’s not exactly yelling but his voice is raised and there’s aggression coming out of every word, “You don’t go fucking rogue and assault your team member.”

 “I didn’t,”

“Yes you did,” Hoya says. He’s just full of surprises today, “Probably apologise to Woohyun for that, later.”

“I already did,” Myungsoo says looking cowed for the first time this exchange. That is not at all surprising.

Sunggyu clears his throat angrily, “Yes if you two could have this conversation when we’re not talking about Myungsoo’s ego nearly destroying this job-” 

Sungjong has to bite his lip not to make a comment about Sunggyu’s ego. Judging by the look on Sungyeol’s face he’s doing the exact same thing. 

“The job is fine, Woohyun is fine, what does it matter?” Myungsoo asks. 

“It matters because you can’t just pull this shit without telling us what’s up, you can’t just go rogue and not tell anyone. It matters because it’s not your job. I make the plan, you do what I tell you to, Hoya hits people, Sungyeol hacks. We have roles and making the plan is sure as fuck not your job and we can very obviously see why it’s not. Punching Woohyun in the face with no warning, making Woohyun and his lack of flexibility have to get into,” Sunggyu stops. Cuts himself off and takes a deep breath.

“It matters because it’s not your job. We all have roles in this team, next time stick to yours. If I trust you enough to give you something to do,” Sunggyu says in a measured voice (he probably thinks he’s being reasonable and rational is probably the funniest part of this to Sungjong).  

Then he storms from the room. 

The four of them sort of look at each other for a while before finally Sungyeol (of course it’s Sungyeol) says, “Well. That went.” 

“That went better than I was expecting,” Myungsoo says cheerfully. It clicks then, what’s been bothering Sungjong about this entire exchange. Myungsoo doesn’t seem particularly remorseful about anything that happened. Sungjong understands holding your ground against Sunggyu (because no one needs a power hunger leader), but Myungsoo doesn’t seem to be recognising that he did something wrong. Not even that he did something wrong, that he inconvenienced the others.

“Humility, Soo,” Hoya says quietly. Myungsoo’s face sobers and he nods.

“So,” Sungyeol says, when it becomes clear no one else is going to say anyone, “Is Sunggyu coming back? Or can we assume his dramatic walk out was dismissing us for the day? Because I could really do with some good food right now.”

 

 

 

♔♚♔

**40:02:58**

 

It’s not until Sunggyu finds himself alone by Myungsoo’s bedside that he realises just how eerie the atmosphere in ICU is. After spending an inordinate amount of time reminding Hoya that he was, despite all appearances, human and in dire need of a nap and a shower, he’d all but collapsed in the vacated chair, scrubbing a hand against eyes that felt dry and gritty, and that’s when it hit him. The hushed murmurs of conversations of two nurses a few beds down, the various beeping noises coming from machines he couldn’t possibly fathom the function of, everything felt subdued, like someone had turned the volume button down in this particular corner of the world.  

If he concentrates hard enough, he can focus on the monitor keeping track of Myungsoo’s heartbeat, and that reassures him a little. 

It’s early in the morning, early enough that none of the other patients have visitors yet, and Sunggyu lets his eyes trail over them briefly before settling on his grifter, lying pale and unnaturally still. The heated blanket covers most of the cables and drips, so Sunggyu could almost fool himself thinking Myungsoo is merely asleep, if it weren’t for the steady hiss of the ventilator supporting his breathing.  

Sunggyu sighs, reaching over to give Myungsoo’s shoulder a gentle squeeze, before he pulls out a well-worn notebook out of his jacket pocket and starts tapping his pen against the moleskin cover. Sungyeol has got the digital misdirection in hand when it comes to hiding Myungsoo’s attendance in hospital from SM, but there are a lot of variables to take into account, and his hacker has got enough on his plate already.  

He tugs his chair closer to the bed, and hesitates for all of a second before he starts running through strategies and back-up plans, voice pitched low enough to keep it for Myungsoo’s ears only. 

Not that Myungsoo can hear him, not that Myungsoo can hear any of them at the moment. That’s what the doctor had told them, Sunggyu hadn’t even bothered to learn the man’s name, he doesn’t want to know. Still, talking things out has always helped, and maybe if he was to really examine his motives he’d find that he finds the lack of sound disconcerting, especially considering how noisy the rest of his team always is. 

He doesn’t examine his motives though, he just does what needs to be done, reading quietly to Myungsoo the whole time. 

Sunggyu has been making a concerted effort to keep an awareness of his surroundings since the absolute last thing he needs is one of the nurses to overhear him mumbling to Myungsoo about blackmail or murder or the downfall of SM. Even in the high pressure environment that is the hospital he’s heard more than one person gossiping about the events of the last few days - events that seem very inconsequential now outside of the fact Sunggyu is trying to make sure no one knows Myungsoo is here (Hoya and Sungyeol’s quick thinking with the fake ID for Myungsoo is something he thanks his lucky stars for every day).

He’s been making an effort to keep an ear out for anyone approaching, yet he still jumps when he feels a hand land on his shoulder, heart shooting into his throat. 

He only breathes a sigh of relief when he realises it’s just Woohyun, when he realises that he hadn’t heard the person approaching because you don’t hear Woohyun (the only person sneakier, it goes without saying, is Sungjong).  

“What’s up?” Sunggyu asks, closing the notebook but keeping his spot with his finger as he looks up at Woohyun. Sunggyu hasn’t actually seen much of him in the time since they’ve been at the hospital, since Sunggyu’s been busy and Woohyun has been making himself scarce. 

If Dongwoo is to be believed though Woohyun is dealing with everything pretty badly, so the least that Sunggyu can do is give him his attention.

“I could be asking you the same question,” Woohyun asks with a raised eyebrow. It’s really forced, but nothing about the way Woohyun is holding himself suggests he’s about to have a nervous breakdown or something. 

“Just doing some bits and pieces, organising loose ends,” Sunggyu says, “Keeping guard.” 

“Over Myungsoo? What do you expect to happen, a nurse to kidnap his beautiful face out from under Hoya’s nose?” Woohyun asks. That’s even more forced than earlier but Sunggyu appreciates the effort.

“More like making sure Hoya doesn’t try and sneak back in here instead of taking a shower,” Sunggyu says with a scoff, matching Woohyun’s energy, “Lord knows he needs one.”

“Yeah,” Woohyun says with a little smile, still hovering beside Sunggyu. 

“I’ve answered your question now,” Sunggyu says when it becomes clear that Woohyun isn’t going to say anything else unprompted, “So how about you answer mine.” 

“Nothing much,” Woohyun shrugs, that hesitance coming through again. Maybe that’s what Dongwoo had been saying, “There’s nothing much for any of us to do, except you single handedly keeping us all together.”  

“I’m not actually doing much,” Sunggyu admits honestly. He wishes there was more to do, more that he could be doing to distract himself from the fact his plan has landed one of his team members in the ICU. That there is a very real possibility, as much as the others refuse to consider it, of Myungsoo having permanent brain damage, “Sungyeol is doing most of the work, online.” 

Sunggyu would feel bad about that except he feels like Sungyeol needs something to do as much as Sunggyu himself does. Plus Sungyeol is honestly the one who’s been holding it together the best out of all of them, so he’s probably the best choice.

“Is this one of those things were you’re selling your contribution short?” Woohyun asks, eyes narrowed suspiciously. 

“Don’t you know, my job is delegation and avoiding work,” Sunggyu says dryly. Even as he’s talking to Woohyun his fingers are twitching, itching to get back to work. There’s not a lot for him to be doing but it’s important work. He doesn’t even want to think about what would happen were SM to find them here. 

“Of course,” Woohyun says equally as try. Again the silence drags, and again Sunggyu has to wonder what Woohyun wants from him. If Woohyun wants anything from Sunggyu at all. Maybe he just wants company of any kind, maybe he needs to reassure himself that Myungsoo is okay.

Eventually he says, “You don’t have to do all this work yourself you know,” Woohyun says eventually. When Sunggyu glances over at him he’s staring steadfastly at where the endotracheal tube is snaking out past Myungsoo’s parted lips, “We’re here to help you. And Sungyeol doesn’t help, you only delegate to Sungyeol out of necessity.”

 There honestly isn’t that much work that Sunggyu has been doing, it’s been pretty constant but not a lot of it, “I’m fine, I’m managing,” Sunggyu says.

Woohyun still doesn’t look at him, “You don’t have to manage. We all want to help. 

Maybe that’s what this is about, maybe the others feel at a loose end. Maybe they, especially Woohyun, need something to do as much as Sunggyu does. Sunggyu sighs, running everything over in his head, trying to figure out a job that he can give Woohyun to do. 

“Sunggyu,” Woohyun says with a sigh, turning to look at him now, “You sent Hoya to have a shower and a break but you need to take five as well.” 

“I’m fine,” Sunggyu says, as a knee jerk reaction. He’s been on the receiving end of Woohyun’s disapproving stare more than once, but for some reason this one is particularly cowing, “Give me an hour,” he sighs, “In an hour I promise I’ll have this under control enough to take a break.”

“Half an hour,” Woohyun says quietly. 

“No, I can’t do it that quickly,” Sunggyu shakes his head. There’s not a lot but there’s more than that.

Woohyun rolls his eyes like he thinks Sunggyu is particularly stupid, “Yes but if I help you it’ll only take half an hour.”

It’s not that simple, there’s stuff that explaining or delegating will make take longer. But Sunggyu concedes easier than he expected himself to, “Okay,” he nods his head.

The smile Woohyun shoots him is tentative but it’s the realest one that Sunggyu has seen from him in a while (it’s nice. He hadn’t realised how much he missed Woohyun - and all of them but especially Woohyun - smiling).

Woohyun drags another chair over and they sit side by side at Myungsoo’s bedside, shoulders brushing as they talk quietly. Woohyun doesn’t mention the way that Sunggyu asks Myungsoo rhetorical questions and Sunggyu doesn’t mention the way Woohyun has to stop to make sure Myungsoo’s breathing sometimes.

It takes them longer than half an hour, as Sunggyu knew it would, but in the end he can’t bring himself to care. 

Sometimes it’s just nice to remember that there are people to have your back. 

 

 

 

♝♝♝

POST SHE’S BACK JOB: SEPTEMBER 2010

 

Sungyeol lets out a sigh as he comes home from Sunggyu’s end of job briefing for the She’s Back Job (that had taken approximately 70% longer than usual purely so that he could bitch about the existence of Hoya and Myungsoo - or L as he’s supposed to call him).

It’s been a long few weeks, and Sungyeol’s not sure he’ll ever be able to shake the heavy guilt, the feeling that his morals and sense of what he stands for as a person has fundamentally shifted. For better or for worse he’s not sure - isn’t sure he’ll ever decide.

He’s not even slightly surprised to find signs someone has forced their way in through his front door when he finally gets up there. He supposes he should be thankful that the two of them have given him a warning.

Because of course it’s Hoya and Myungsoo.  

The two of them are sitting on Sungyeol’s living room couch looking all the world like they own the place. Like they practice this (Sungyeol’s is particularly impressed by the knife stabbed into the couch by Hoya’s hand - it’s a ridiculously over the top gesture that should be comical. It would be comical if Sungyeol hadn’t just seen Hoya in action. As it is he’s pretty fucking scared of the guy). 

“I see you two have made yourself at home,” Sungyeol says sarcastically as he kicks off his shoes, “I suppose that means I don’t have to offer you a drink or something.”

 He might be scared as heck of Hoya (and something about Myungsoo is honestly more terrifying than Hoya though he hasn’t been able to figure out what it is) but he’s not going to let that show.  

“What if I want a drink?” Myungsoo asks with a pout.

“I’m sure you’ve gone through all my stuff by now and know exactly where the kitchen is. Help yourself,” Sungyeol says. He’s not sure where to go from here. Standing over the two of them is awkward, sitting down is putting them in control. Doing nothing is awkward and makes him look indecisive.

Sungyeol hates the politics of crime, it’s why he much prefers to sit behind a computer monitor and not interact with anyone besides Jihyun and her crew. 

“Is there a reason you’ve broken into my apartment?” He ends up asking, deciding to sit in the armchair opposite them because fuck them this is his house he’ll do as he please, “Or are you just trying to intimidate me?”

Sungyeol isn’t expecting a straight answer. Even if he was expecting an answer, he wasn’t expecting the one Hoya gives him, matter-of-fact like everything he’s ever done, “I need you to tell me everything you know about Kim Sunggyu.” 

Sungyeol pauses. Sunggyu drives him insane, Sunggyu is not nearly as good at leading a team as he thinks he is. Sunggyu needs to learn to hone his teamwork skills. Despite all this Sungyeol respects what Sunggyu is trying to do, respects his intentions - even if he’s pretty piss poor job at executing them. Sungyeol knows very little, so little it makes him uncomfortable, about these two. 

He’s not sure he’d be comfortable telling them about Sunggyu’s past, about the tragedy that’s driven him to where he is. Driven him to abandon the law he’s always been such a stickler in following (that’s part of the reason he’s still here - why he puts up with Sunggyu’s shit whilst he’s trying to find his feet. He can’t imagine having something you believe in fail you so spectacularly you decide to take it down from the other side. Can’t imagine how much mental recalibration that would require). 

“I don’t need to know about the tragic details of Kim Sunggyu’s past, I think we all know that,” Hoya says, clearly having read what Sungyeol was thinking on his face (something Sungyeol still needs to work on).

“I don’t,” Myungsoo mutters under his breath petulantly. Hoya shushes him (much later, he’ll realise that was the first time they ever showed Sungyeol they weren’t a perpetually united front). 

“I want to know what Kim Sunggyu is like as a person, as a leader. Beyond what he’s like when he’s feeling threatened by outsiders,” Hoya says calmly.

“Wouldn’t you be better off asking Sungjong?” Sungyeol can’t help blurting out. Or Woohyun, but well understandably Woohyun doesn’t have the best opinion of the pair of them at the moment. 

“No,” Hoya shrugs.

“Sunggyu is,” Sungyeol stops and really thinks about the question. Sunggyu is domineering on his good days, a fucking tyrant on his best days. Sunggyu is naive and new to this world but thinks he knows best, Sunggyu doesn’t listen to input unless he asks you for it. There is a reason that Sungyeol called Hoya and Myungsoo in for this job behind his back. 

Sunggyu is also filled to the brim with good intentions. Sunggyu isn’t a bad person, he’s not gentle or soft but he doesn’t have room to be. Sunggyu is learning as he’s going, Sunggyu says nasty things but Sunggyu is never cruel on purpose, Sunggyu never asks anyone to do something unless he’s sure they can do it.

Sungyeol has experience with SM, with the kind of leaders they are. In comparison Sunggyu is a fucking saint. 

“Sunggyu is trying his best. Sunggyu’s heart is in the right place and he’s learning. His ego is a force to be reckoned with and he doesn’t like being told he’s wrong, but I’ve seen worse.” Sungyeol says, chews his lip. “Sunggyu _is_ getting better at leading.  In five years’ time he might even be a good leader.”

Hoya barks out a laugh at that and even Myungsoo smiles. 

“Do you regret working with him?” Hoya asks him. That question feels deeper than what it is, Sungyeol feels like Hoya is digging. He doesn’t particularly care though, so he answers the question.

 “Not a day in my life.”

“Okay,” Hoya nods, looking at Myungsoo, “L?” 

Myungsoo nods. “If we stick around, if we decide to join your team,” Hoya says. Sungyeol wasn’t aware that Sunggyu had made them an offer, but it wouldn’t be out of character for Sunggyu to keep it from them. Wait until he got an answer so his team never found out if he was knocked back, “We can never tell Sunggyu what we did to pull this off.”

“I know,” Sungyeol nods. Fights the urge to curl in on himself. He doesn’t ever want to tell Sunggyu, doesn’t want anyone to know. 

“Hey,” Myungsoo says, speaking up for the first time, “We did the right thing. Someone had to do it and it wasn’t going to be Kim Sunggyu.” 

“I know we made the right call,” Sungyeol admits.

“But?” Myungsoo prompts him gently. 

“I don’t like what we did,” Sungyeol says. He doesn’t know why he’s telling these two literally strangers this, why he’s giving them leverage over him. He guesses the fact they helped him out, even though they had no obligation to, helps. Or maybe he’s just so worn down by what they did today that he needs to talk to someone. 

“We don’t like it either,” Hoya says, surprising Sungyeol. He knows all about Hoya’s past, so the fact that their actions are bothering him is in all honestly kind of reassuring, “But sometimes you have to do things that tear you apart inside.” 

“Morbid,” Sungyeol drawls, trying to get this conversation out of dangerous territory.

“You know that as well as I do Lee Sungyeol,” Hoya tells him.  

“If you do stick around,” Sungyeol says because he still won’t quite believe it until Sunggyu tells him himself (because these two seem the type that don’t know how to stay, because Sunggyu doesn’t seem the type to let someone like Hoya who challenges his authority so easily into his team), “Are we going to have to keep doing this?” 

“Doing what?” Myungsoo prompts. 

“Sneaking around behind the others’ backs, doing things we don’t want them to know to get the job done?” It’s so much more than that but Sungyeol isn’t ready to articulate that, isn’t sure he ever will be, “Keep things from them.”

Myungsoo and Hoya exchange a look, “We will because it needs done. You know it needs done because you’re the ones that called us. You called _us_ after I’m sure you’d done your research on us,” Hoya isn’t wrong. There is a reason Sungyeol had asked these two instead of Jihyun or Jiae. 

“If you don’t want to, or can’t do it, we won’t make you.” Myungsoo tells him, leaning forward earnestly, “You don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with.” 

Sungyeol knows that. Also knows if Sunggyu finds out about this, if they continue to do this, he’s not going to approve (Dongwoo and Woohyun are going to approve even less - Sungyeol can never get a reading on Sungjong’s morals). 

Myungsoo is right though, it needs done. It needs done and Sungyeol got them involved again and he’s not going to be a coward that palms the dirty work off to someone else.

“No, I don’t know I’ll be alright with everything, but I’m not going to leave this to you.” Sungyeol’s conscience won’t let him.

“Well then,” Myungsoo smiles way more cheerfully than he has any right to be after the weight of this conversation, “It’ll be our little secret.”

 

 

♖♖♖

 

The first time Yoon Bora appears in their life, Dongwoo writes it off. The second time, he thinks it’s a coincidence. By the third time he starts to wonder, and the fourth time, well the fourth time makes him worry.

Maybe he’s thinking too far into it, maybe Sunggyu just likes Bora’s company. That seems like too much of a coincidence though, knowing Sunggyu.

“What’s on your mind,” Dongwoo is interrupted from his thoughts by the gentle press of fingers on his forehead, “Surely it can’t be worth the wrinkles you’re trying to give yourself?” It takes a second for his mind to process what’s happening but then Dongwoo realises Woohyun is standing over him, smoothing the wrinkles out his brow. It’s a terrible joke. It’s a Hoya level joke but Dongwoo just smiles a little.

 Woohyun steps back and sits next to Dongwoo on the couch. He’s not sure where everyone else is, except Sunggyu. He knows Sunggyu is with Bora, “Do you think it’s odd, how much we’ve been bumping into Yoon Bora?” Dongwoo asks eventually. 

“I don’t think we’ve been bumping into her?” Woohyun says, looking confused, like he thinks maybe Dongwoo is testing him, “I thought, except maybe the first time, Sunggyu had been organising it?”

“Yeah,” Dongwoo says, “That’s what I was afraid of.” 

Woohyun frowns, “What’s wrong with that? Isn’t it good that Sunggyu has someone outside of us to talk to?”

Dongwoo isn’t sure if he should tell Woohyun this, or Sunggyu would want him to. On the other hand he’s sure Sungyeol knows, and if Sungyeol knows then the wonder twins know, “Bora reminds me of his sister. A lot.” Dongwoo says eventually. 

Woohyun frowns even more if that’s possible, “And you think he’s interested romantically in someone who looks like his sister?”

“No,” Dongwoo shakes his head, though he sees why Woohyun might have come to that conclusion, “his sister is dead.”

“Oh I’m sorry I didn’t know,” Woohyun says, sounding genuinely apologetic but not as if he’s blaming himself for not knowing. Despite the serious nature of the conversation that makes Dongwoo happy.  

“It’s okay, he probably didn’t want me to tell you,” Dongwoo shrugs, “Plus I barely knew her, even when we were on the right side of the law Sunggyu was huge on keeping his work and private lives separate.” Dongwoo says.

Dongwoo had liked Sunggyu’s sister, had known the two of them had been closer than any siblings Dongwoo had seen (Dongwoo loves his sister, and his family, like nothing else on the planet but they were his family. Sunggyu’s sister had been his protector and friend and mentor).

“So you think that Sunggyu is projecting his sister onto Bora?” Woohyun asks, hesitantly.

Dongwoo nods, “When you say it like that it sounds silly,” he admits. It sounds like Dongwoo is the one projecting.

“It doesn’t sound silly,” Woohyun shakes his head straight away, “Sunggyu wouldn’t be the first person to suppress feelings about a tragedy, or to project affection for a loved one onto a stranger.”

“So it’s okay?” Dongwoo asks. That can’t be right though, it doesn’t sound healthy.

“Well, it’s not okay, or a particularly effective long-term coping mechanism,” Woohyun says, “But then none of us are exactly winning any awards for the way we deal without our traumatic pasts.”

Dongwoo has to snort at that (even if it’s true - with the exception of Sungjong as far as Dongwoo is aware - they cover all the angsty past clichés from dead families to absentee parents).   

“Should we do something?” Dongwoo asks. That’s the question he’s been wrestling with for longer than he’d like to think about.  

Woohyun looks like he’s thinking about it long and hard, though he could simply be trying to placate Dongwoo. Eventually he shakes his head, “I don’t think there’s anything we can do at the moment.”  

“Reassuring,” Dongwoo says dryly. 

“Well he hasn’t done anything particularly concerning, that I’ve seen,” Woohyun says musingly before rushing to add, “not that you don’t have reason to be concerned, but what are we going to do? Go up to him and say so your friend looks like your dead sister?”

“I wasn’t suggesting we do that,” Dongwoo insists because he hadn’t considered it. Much. 

“Saying something is going to cause waves and as much as I know you’re not a fan of letting things simmer so that we don’t cause waves,” Woohyun says. 

Dongwoo nods, “I think it’s different this time because we don’t have any proof he’s doing anything wrong or that’ll hurt the team and I don’t want to hurt the team.” 

“You’re worried about Sunggyu,” Woohyun points out gently.

Dongwoo is worried about Sunggyu, that’s what this is about and it’s what it has always been about, “Am I overreacting again?” Dongwoo asks.

“I don’t know, you’re the only one of us that really knows Sunggyu, Sungyeol’s probably hacking his entire history aside. I think you’re a better judge of that than me,” Woohyun says. Honesty but not exactly helpful. 

“I don’t know,” Dongwoo says because he doesn’t.

Woohyun nods, wrapping an arm around Dongwoo’s shoulder, “Then we’ll keep an eye on him together, but secretly. Between the two of us I’m sure we’ll be able to notice if he’s about to do something silly like run off with Bora, or worse replace Myungsoo with her.”

“Not you?” Dongwoo can’t help asking.

“Well obviously not,” Woohyun says though he clearly joking, “I’m quite obviously irreplaceable.” 

“Obviously,” Dongwoo says dryly.

 

 

 

♔♚♔

 

Sunggyu feels sympathy for Myungsoo, he really does.

He knows, from his time with Woollim, a little bit about being forcefully side-lined with an injury, but two weeks out with a sprained ankle is nothing he’s sure compared to what Myungsoo has been going through. 

Myungsoo is taking being benched from grifting worse than Sunggyu ever could have expected, so there must be some sort of underlying issue there that he doesn’t know about. He doesn’t particularly need to know about it in all honesty.

He does need to distract Myungsoo from the fact that he’s not being put into the big grifting roles and they can all see it.

It’s not that Sunggyu doesn’t trust Myungsoo so much that he’s worried about him. It’s that Hoya is breathing down his neck. It’s the fact that not even three months ago Myungsoo was forbidden from stepping foot on an airplane by his doctor and yet he already is expecting to be back out in the thick of things, facing some very dangerous people head on 

Sungyeol has been teaching Myungsoo to hack, as far as Sunggyu is aware, which is all well and good --they probably need someone besides Sungyeol that’s at least literate when it comes to computers. It doesn’t help Myungsoo feel less useless during the jobs though because he’s not good enough to be put on alone and Sungyeol is too busy to teach whilst in the midst of a job.

Sunggyu agonises over what to do with Myungsoo, sending him with Sungjong had just drawn Sungjong’s ire, and he can’t send him with Hoya and Dongwoo for obvious reasons. Which means the only viable options is Sunggyu himself. 

He spends a couple of days trying to figure out how he can do this without it being blindingly obvious he’s trying to distract Myungsoo. Then he decides fuck it, Myungsoo would figure it out pretty quickly anyway so it’s probably better to be honest with him.

And of course the first thing Myungsoo asks when Sunggyu asks him to help plan is, “What are you doing?”

“Planning the next job,” Sunggyu says blandly, not looking up from the paper in front of him. He hopes if he doesn’t treat it as a big deal then neither will Myungsoo.

“Why? Are you pitying me?” Myungsoo all but demands. Sunggyu sighs. Myungsoo isn’t usually so fragile in his self-worth, for lack of a better way to put it. Either he’s been spending too much time with Sungyeol, or this ordeal has affected him more than anyone has guessed.

“No, I’m utilising my resources the most efficiently given the current situation,” Sunggyu says. The words sound like bullshit to his own ears, so he can only imagine what Myungsoo must think of them. They’re not strictly a lie though.

“What does that mean?” Myungsoo asks, sounding frustrated.

“It means I really don’t want you dying on me on a job. I want your boyfriend disembowelling me for putting you in danger even less,” Sunggyu starts to say, though he’s interrupted by Myungsoo before he can finish.

“I wouldn’t die,” Myungsoo says petulantly, “I haven’t died yet.”

Sunggyu could point out he came closer than any of them have come (whilst working together - he’s sure Hoya has stories. He knows Woohyun does). Somehow he thinks Myungsoo wouldn’t take that well. Instead he deadpans, “You only have to die once for my internal organs to be on the line. I’m sorry Myungsoo, I’m not risking that.”

Probably despite himself, Myungsoo smiles. 

“Do you know what this has made me realise?” Sunggyu finally looks up at Myungsoo, “This whole ordeal with your injury?”

“That I’m useless and Woohyun is better suited to this team?” Myungsoo asks lightly. It’s one of those jokes that cuts a little close to home, but Sunggyu choses to ignore it, pretend Myungsoo is 100% joking.

“No. That’s we’re really lucky to have two hitters and two grifters in case something happens to take someone out of commission,” Sunggyu explains. It’s obvious, it’s really fucking obvious and he’d of course known that all along, but this is the first time he’s really appreciated it. Myungsoo opens his mouth but Sunggyu cuts him off, “We’re lucky that you have the skills to cover for Sungjong, that Hoya or Sungyeol can cover for a grifter in a pinch, not ideal, and they’re nowhere near as good as you, but workable.”

“Your feeding of my ego is remarkably transparent,” Myungsoo smiles, “I’m not Sungyeol, you don’t need to bother.”

“It’s a fact.” Sunggyu shrugs. He might have thrown it in there to appease Myungsoo and his ego, but it doesn’t make the words any less true. 

“Whatever, is this story going anywhere?” Myungsoo asks, though he’s clearly in a slightly better mood now. Less pouty.

“The point is we have no one to back up Sungyeol and no one to cover for me, if something happens,” Sunggyu says.

“The likelihood of something happening to you is low seeing as you never do anything,” Myungsoo points out dryly. The most cliché of jokes; Sunggyu has heard it from his team so many times now it’s not even worth an eye roll. 

“The point is, I figured someone should know how I find the clients, how I make sure they’re legitimate, what information needs found all that fun stuff,” Sunggyu tells him with a little smile, “Anyone in this team could make the plan, that’s not the hard part.”

Myungsoo pauses, “I hadn’t thought of it that way,” He says eventually, “The preparation work that goes in.”

“No one ever does,” Sunggyu shrugs. He’s not offended, it’s just a fact.

“Why me? Just because I’m injured? Wouldn’t Sungyeol be a better choice? Or Woohyun?” Myungsoo asks. Not self-deprecating, just curious.

“I might not have considered you before, I wouldn’t have considered telling anyone,” Sunggyu eventually says, “But Sungyeol already has more than enough on his plate, especially at the moment,” Myungsoo nods in agreement (Myungsoo probably knows way more about what’s troubling Sungyeol than Sunggyu himself does). 

“Woohyun?” Myungsoo asks.

“Woohyun, like Dongwoo, is too soft hearted,” Sunggyu explains. Woohyun and Dongwoo are necessary to the team for that very reason, their morals so important. It does mean they can’t really make the choices though, “He’d want to help everyone. He’d want to help people we can’t help. It’s got to be you, you have empathy, so much empathy Myungsoo but you’re a realist.”

“You can’t save everyone,” Myungsoo says quietly, like he’s repeating something he’s heard, “Otherwise you won’t be able to save yourself”

“Exactly,” Sunggyu says, sure Myungsoo has much more experience with that then he does himself, “You don’t have to help if you don’t want to, you don’t have to learn. I just thought I’d offer.”

“No, I want to,” Myungsoo says, squaring his shoulders and looking like he has a purpose for the first time since everything, “Let’s get started.”

Sunggyu smiles.

 

 

♔♚♔

DECEMBER 25 2013

Despite the fact they’ve been together as a team for going on three years, they’ve never spent Christmas together. It doesn’t really surprise Sunggyu as such, they’re co-workers, not family, but it’s interesting that everyone (except Sungyeol and Dongwoo) manages to find somewhere else to be at the end of December.

This year, through circumstance more than any concrete decision that anyone made, they’ve found themselves all together on Christmas.  

Of course it’s Dongwoo who first enthusiastically suggests they do a secret Santa. Sungyeol sarcastically points out that there’s not really anything you can get a team of thieves that they haven’t got themselves, but no one really has the heart to actually reject Dongwoo’s idea. Once that’s been suggested, Woohyun and Hoya reluctantly agree to cook a proper dinner for everyone, and Myungsoo suggests getting a Christmas tree. 

It snowballs from there.  

Which Sunggyu assumes, is how they went from having to stay together for the holidays out of necessity, to having the closest thing Sunggyu has had to a Christmas celebration since he was a teenager. 

“Are you okay with this?” Dongwoo sidles up to him on Christmas morning, “It’s not going to be too hard.” 

Sunggyu has to bite his tongue to refrain from pointing out that it’s too late to do anything even if Sunggyu isn’t alright with it. Instead he shakes his head, “Most of us have reason to be wary of Christmas, if Sungyeol and Myungsoo can put it behind them, so can I. Plus, are you going to be okay with this?” He can’t help asking. The holidays were always a big thing for Dongwoo’s family, not so much Christmas as simply an excuse to get together.

“I can’t be with my family whether we do something or not, so I’d rather have something nice with the team than sit and think about what my family is doing without me,” Dongwoo admits with a sad little smile. 

Sunggyu supposes that makes sense, “Yes, it’s a complete surprise your suggestion led to this,” Sunggyu says dryly.

“Very. A surprise you let it get to this,” Dongwoo tells him wisely.

“I couldn’t disappoint the kids,” Sunggyu says, before deciding that’s a bit too honest and adding, “Plus I kind of want to see if Woohyun’s grand American Christmas lunch is all it’s cracked up to be,”

 Dongwoo smiles at him in a way that Sunggyu would describe as proud and fond, as if that made any sense, “You’re a good leader you know, and a good man,” Dongwoo tells him.

Sunggyu rolls his eyes, “Get out of here, go help Hoya in the kitchen,” Sunggyu says, pushing Dongwoo gently away. 

Dongwoo goes and Sunggyu wanders over to supervise where Sungyeol and Myungsoo are ‘decorating’ the living room but really just throwing tinsel at each other, Woohyun huffing instructions out behind them (it’s times like these that Sunggyu remembers that Woohyun grew up in America - that he takes this whole Christmas thing a whole lot more seriously than the rest of them do).

Despite the general chaos dinner goes off without a hitch, Sungjong appearing out of somewhere as soon as food is called the table, and Woohyun very pleased that everyone seems to be enjoying his food.

Once food is finished they all gather in the living room, “Presents?” Myungsoo asks, bouncing on the edge of his seat from his position next to Sungyeol. 

“No,” Dongwoo says firmly, “Presents are for evening, after Christmas is done.” Sunggyu knows Dongwoo’s family had always done that, because they felt once people got their presents they were too distracted with the objects to want to spend time with their family. He imagines everyone’s bought silly gifts this time so they won’t really have a problem with that, but family traditions are hard to pass up on. 

“What do you suggest we do for the next four hours then?” Sungjong drawls looking at his wrist. He’s sitting on the other side of the room, next to Hoya, as away from the group as he can be (Sunggyu is pleased but surprised he even bothered showing up), “Talk about our feelings?” 

“Can we,” Sungyeol offers up before pausing looking down at his feet. Myungsoo squeezes his wrist gently before he’s finishing, “my family used to always play board games on Christmas,” then he shakes his head “I know it’s a stupid idea.”

Any other day someone would probably agree with that, jump down his throat and mock him. Something about today (about the mention of Sungyeol’s family) means no one does - even though Sunggyu kind of was expecting Hoya to make some kind of snide comment.  

“Do we even have board games?” Woohyun asks practically, looking like he’s thinking through the options. 

Dongwoo shakes his head, “No,”

“We could find something on the internet?” is Myungsoo’s helpful contribution.

“It’s fine, it was just an idea,” Sungyeol shakes his head, looking so small again. 

Sungjong sighs, “Give me five minutes,” he says before disappearing. 

It’s not even five minutes (four minutes and forty-seven seconds - Hoya had a timer on his phone) before Sungjong is back, stack of board games in his arms, “Board games aren’t really my thing, I didn’t know what was a good one,” he says before dropping the stack at Sungyeol feet.

“Can I just put the rule in place that the wonder twins aren’t allowed to be on the same team,” Woohyun speaks up as Sungyeol and Myungsoo excitedly go through the games.

“I assume you mean Hoya and Myungsoo, but let’s not forget that Sunggyu and Dongwoo probably have a pretty unfair advantage as well,” Sungjong says dryly. Woohyun nods.

“Not really,” Dongwoo says with a cheeky smile, “But if it means I don’t have the handicap that is Sunggyu then I’m all for it.”

Sunggyu has to throw a pillow at Dongwoo in retaliation for that - it’s the principle of the matter.

“I don’t want Sunggyu either.” Woohyun says quickly, as Sungyeol and Myungsoo chorus “Dibs not Sunggyu.” 

Sunggyu rolls his eyes, because he’s (mostly) sure they’re just teasing him.

Eventually they draw straws for it, which is a mistake because the team comprised of Sungyeol and Hoya kick everyone’s ass in every game they play (Sunggyu doesn’t think he’s ever seen Myungsoo pout so much in a single day before) and Sunggyu is sure Sungjong was considering murder when he opened his secret Santa present but all in all it’s a nice day.

It’s a day that reminds Sunggyu exactly how close this team is. How lucky they are that they pulled through this year.

May 2014 be better.

 

 

_ How can we win  _   
_ When fools can be kings? _   
_ Don't waste your time  
Or time will waste you_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone that celebrates the holiday season had an excellent weekend, and even if you don't celebrate I hope your weekend was good anyway and 2017 is nothing but kind to you :)
> 
> See ya'll next year :)


	19. Chapter Thirteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was meant to be light and fluffy but given how things have been going for me recently a couple of these scenes got angstier than I intended, even after rewriting one especially to tone it down. 
> 
> Thank you for bearing with me and how late this chapter is.
> 
> This is the Dongwoo chapter but you’d be forgiven for thinking it was the Woohyun chapter at certain points.

**Chapter 13: Dongwoo**

 

_It's not a weakness to see the good in people. It's not a flaw or a bad thing to trust._

 

♙♙♙

OCTOBER 2011 : POST PARADISE JOB

 

When Sunggyu tells the team to scatter after the Paradise job, Woohyun honestly expects not to see any of the team until they re-group in Japan a few weeks later. He’s not particularly looking forward to that time alone, he’s willing to admit, but maybe it will do him some good. 

He’s been alone for such a long time that he should be used to it (getting used to relying on people is nothing but dangerous, a voice that sounds suspiciously like Kibum’s chimes in his head).  

He doesn’t expect Myungsoo to insist that he has one final meal with Myungsoo and Hoya before they’re off doing their usual gallivanting thing.  

He doesn’t expect Sungjong to insist on helping him pack his stuff (because Woohyun would take ages and besides Sungjong needs a break from Dongwoo anyway). 

He doesn’t expect to open his email to find a bunch of emails about dealing with PTSD from an anonymous source (no one ever accused Sungyeol of being subtle).

What he least expects though is to swing his door open four days later, ready to head to the airport to find Dongwoo on his doorstep, some sort of duffle bag slung over his shoulder.

Woohyun steps back.

 “Hi,” Dongwoo says cheerfully, not pushing his way into Woohyun’s apartment so much as gently steering Woohyun back in and following him. Woohyun can very clearly see he’s doing it, but he’s confused enough by Dongwoo’s appearance that he lets him.

“Hi, what are you doing here?” Woohyun asks bluntly. That’s probably rude but Dongwoo just laughs.

“Sunggyu has something he had to do by himself,” Dongwoo says, dropping his bag by the door and further steering Woohyun into the apartment, “So he’s gone.” He says, taking a seat on the couch in the living room. 

Woohyun cocks his head and watches Dongwoo as he observes Woohyun’s apartment. He looks curious, really curious. It’s interesting to Woohyun, Sungjong had been curious about the things he had and Hoya seemingly hadn’t given a shit about anything in any of the rooms.

Dongwoo on the other hand looks as if the room is going to reveal all of Woohyun’s secrets to him. It’s invasive for sure, but he’s not actually looking through things (as the way his fingers are twitching suggests he wants to do). Part of Woohyun is also flattered that Dongwoo cares enough to be curious.

“That doesn’t explain why you’re here,” Woohyun points out with more hostility than he intended (He’s still struggling. With his tone, with reading people. Normal for trauma apparently, Sungyeol’s articles had said. Woohyun still refuses to acknowledge that he’d been traumatised, it was fine. It was to be expected. It was no more traumatising than that whole jail experience). 

Dongwoo, bless his soul, completely ignores his tone and shrugs, “I thought we could go on an adventure.”

It’s perhaps the most obvious attempt to coddle Woohyun yet. He’s annoyed by the way his team seems to think he is unable to be alone, that he’s going to turn into a hysterical mess the second he’s left alone. It doesn’t matter that’s almost exactly what he did because he’s talked to Hoya now and fixed everything. He’s fine.

(Logically, he knows that’s not how it works. Logic doesn’t really help).

“An adventure where?” Woohyun knows he’s probably going to regret asking but he also knows Dongwoo is probably going to tell him whether he asks or not so he might as well get it out of the way. 

“I’ve always wanted to go to Indonesia,” Dongwoo says with a steady gaze.

“What’s in Indonesia?” Woohyun asks in confusion. He’s not sure what Dongwoo is doing or aiming for which is throwing him off. Of the team Dongwoo is usually the easiest person for Woohyun to read since he doesn’t bother trying to hide his feelings or intentions (it’s probably going to end up hurting him in this game but it’s oddly soothing for Woohyun). 

“Excellent beaches,” Dongwoo deadpans back. Woohyun half wants to laugh half wants to roll his eyes.

 “You want to pop into Indonesia on our way to Japan?” Woohyun asks sceptically. He wasn’t expecting anyone to attempt to help him as much as they had, but Dongwoo in particular has gone above and beyond what he ever thought possible. 

“I don’t like being alone in this, I’m not very good at it,” Dongwoo admits. It’s a weakness, he’s admitting a weakness, but he’s so unabashed about it that it takes Woohyun by surprise, “And, I think you probably don’t want to be alone after everything.”

“I talked to Hoya,” Woohyun says, a knee jerk reaction.

“Talking about your feelings helps, but it doesn’t fix everything,” Dongwoo tells him earnestly.

“Because a holiday to Indonesia will?” Woohyun can’t help asking, hating himself almost straight away for how rude he’s being to Dongwoo who is just trying to help. 

Luckily Dongwoo shakes it off, “Well no, but being alone right now will probably make you feel worse, so I thought I’d offer.”

Dongwoo is offering so Woohyun doesn’t have to ask (because he never would) Woohyun realises, “Indonesia though?” he can’t help asking.

Dongwoo beams at him, “Well it doesn’t _have_ to be Bali, it could be anywhere on the planet within reason. If you want to.”

Of course Woohyun wants to, he’s just not sure if he should.

Except if there’s anything this experience has taught him, talking with Hoya, being lectured by Sungyeol and smothered by Myungsoo, it’s that maybe, maybe his team have his back.

He’s always known they have on the job, but he’s starting to realise that maybe it’s less out of obligation and maybe because they actually like him.

Normally, Woohyun would reject the offer because he knows he’s fine on his own. Right now though he’s tired. He’s tired and he’s fine on his own, but he’d probably be happier with Dongwoo. 

He smiles at Dongwoo, “No, Bali is good.”

  

 

♟♟♟

THE LAST ROMEO JOB : JUNE 2014

 

Myungsoo is really starting to consider putting a fist through the laptop screen and saying fuck this job.

The only reason he _hasn’t_ is because he promised Sunggyu he could do this. Plus it’s Sungyeol’s laptop screen, but mostly he doesn’t want to let Sunggyu down.

 The way he’s going though, he’s going to be letting Sunggyu and the whole team down, regardless of any property damage he may or may not hypothetically commit. 

Sunggyu had still been so, so hesitant to let Myungsoo back into the field (if Myungsoo is being honest he doesn’t blame him) and no one had really argued with him. It had been Sungyeol to offer the compromise, and the only reason Myungsoo hadn’t felt condescendingly placated was because it was Sungyeol. 

That’s how Myungsoo finds himself sitting behind a computer whilst Sungyeol is out grifting with Woohyun. Sungyeol was confident he said, that Myungsoo could do the basics of the hacker’s role, and besides it was good to have more than one person able to do each job (Myungsoo has heard that before - heard it from Sunggyu. He wonders if these two have these conversations together or if they’re just on scary similar wavelengths). 

Despite everything, Myungsoo would much rather be out there instead of monitoring security cameras (easy) and trying to hack into the computer network of Lee Haewook’s riverside townhouse (impossible). 

The thing is, Sungyeol had given him step by step instructions. The thing is Myungsoo should be able to do this, theoretically he knows how to do it. 

He can’t do it though because Sungyeol has this knack of making difficult things sound easy. Perhaps they are easy when you grow up hacking instead of playing computer games or joining a sports team or whatever it is normal, well-adjusted teenage boys do (Myungsoo wouldn’t have the foggiest).

As it is, Myungsoo has been staring at the laptop for what feels like a week, though the clock on the laptop tells him it’s been closer to an hour. He has about ninety minutes before Sungjong is going to _need_ access to the system, which means Myungsoo figures he has about half an hour before he has to admit defeat and get Sungyeol to bail him out.

He’s so lost in his own thoughts he doesn’t notice the sound of footsteps approaching him until there are arms around his shoulders, “Myungsoo!” Dongwoo says with more volume than is strictly necessary. 

“Dongwoo,” Myungsoo greets back with much less enthusiasm (even at his most enthusiastic, Myungsoo could never match Dongwoo for enthusiasm and he’s very much not at his most enthusiastic at the moment). 

“How’s it coming?” Dongwoo asks cheerfully. 

Very conscious of the fact that they’re still on the comms and he doesn’t want the others to know how much he’s struggling just yet (maybe he’ll blink and Sungyeol’s instructions will magically make sense - he can only hope), he answers, “Fine.”

Dongwoo hums, reaching over his shoulder to pick up Myungsoo’s phone, where he has Sungyeol’s instructions pulled up and starts to read, “Sungyeol,” Dongwoo says after a while. 

“Yeah, what’s up?” Sungyeol asks, sounding distracted. They’re all going to die and it’s going to be Myungsoo’s fault.

“What the heck is a Trojan horse?” Dongwoo asks, sounding genuinely confused. At least Myungsoo isn’t the only one, although Dongwoo has a bit less experience with everything (Sungyeol has been teaching him for six months and Myungsoo is still a failure).

“What, you just use the backdoor we identified to run the Trojan through and get access to the mainframe,” Sungyeol says, “Ask Myungsoo, he knows.”

Myungsoo most certainly doesn’t know, that’s his whole problem, and he really hopes that Dongwoo doesn’t ask him because then everyone will know he’s failed (though maybe sooner than later is better). 

Dongwoo doesn’t ask Myungsoo, instead he just covers Myungsoo’s ear with his hand and says, “Myungsoo went to the bathroom, I’m watching his computer for him.”

“There are some things the whole world doesn’t need to know,” Sungjong says with a long suffering sigh. Normally Myungsoo would agree, but right now he thinks he understands what Dongwoo is doing and he’s immensely grateful.

“Sungyeol asked,” Dongwoo shrugs, removing his hand so Myungsoo can reach up and turn his mic off (like he would in the bathroom), “Is it hard though? It sounds impressive.”

“Not really,” Sungyeol boasts, happy to have his ego stroked, “It’s pretty simple once you know what to do,”  he says before proceeding to explain it simply.

Myungsoo beams at Dongwoo, following Sungyeol’s instructions that are really easy to follow now he knows what’s up. It only takes him two minutes and then he’s done, the hour long suffering seeming pretty pointless in the end.

He supposes he could have asked Sungyeol himself, but, it’s nice. He’s let down the team enough already, he’s glad they don’t think he’s done it another time. 

Once Sungyeol has finished his explanation everything clicks into place, from Sungyeol’s lessons Myungsoo sees exactly what he should be doing in the system. 

He turns around to throw his arms around Dongwoo in a huge hug which Dongwoo gladly returns, mouthing a thank you (paranoid they’ll be overheard - though he makes a mental note to do something nice for Dongwoo later) before switching his mic back on.

They’ve got work to do after all.

 

  

 

♔♚♔

Sunggyu never in a million years expected to find himself crammed in the, admittedly quite roomy, bathroom of their current base of operations, five sets of eyes staring back at him in varying states of annoyance. Yet here he is.

Hoya and Myungsoo are looking bizarrely content as they sit entangled in the bath whilst Sungyeol perches on the edge of the tub next to them. Sungjong looks as at home where he’s sitting on the vanity as he does on any piece of furniture, but the way Woohyun is standing awkwardly by the door indicates he’s not exactly happy with their chosen meeting place. 

Sunggyu ignores him and continues to outline his plan, but it’s hard to ignore when he finishes speaking and silence reigns, “So,” he eventually asks, “Is that a thing we can do.” 

He’s not normally nervous about his team’s reaction to his plans, they’ll follow them regardless of how they feel about it and Sunggyu isn’t going to take it personally. This is different though, this is very personal, and very important and not a job anyone is paying them to do.

It’s more important. 

Sungyeol scoffs, “Of course we can do it, on a list of ridiculous and unreasonable things you’ve asked me to do this isn’t even in the top ten. This week.”

“It’s pretty straight forward as plans go,” Sungjong interjects, swinging his legs in front of him. It’s so at odds with the unaffected look that’s permanently glued to his face these days that it’s almost comical, “Even Woohyun could have come up with it.”

Woohyun scoffs in annoyance. 

“So you’re all on board then?” Sunggyu asks, giving his team the option for the first time ever.

“Yes, yes, of course we all want to help Dongwoo, but is there any reason we're having this conversation in the fucking bathroom?” Woohyun asks, sounding more annoyed than the situation really calls for in Sunggyu’s opinion.

“It had to be somewhere Dongwoo would never interrupt us,” Sunggyu says defensively. Honestly he’s not quite sure how they ended up in here of all places, but he’s not going to bring it up now.

“We’re on board,” Hoya says, with a roll of his eyes, answering the question to cut them off. Sunggyu’s secretly glad, but has to glare at Hoya for the interruption just to keep up appearances.

“But if you two keep going like this Dongwoo is going to hear you and come and investigate and then this awkward meeting place will be all for nothing,” Myungsoo chimes in cheekily.

Sunggyu shoots him a glare but doesn’t acknowledge it any more than that.

“Well then,” Sungjong says haughtily (though he’s not fooling anyone, Sunggyu can see how eager he is for this to go ahead), “Mission find Dongwoo a family is a go.” 

“Sungjong,” Sungyeol says seriously, they all turn to look at him, “Never name one of our jobs again.”

 

 

 

♖♖♖

APRIL 2014 

 

“Woohyun, pst Woohyun,” Dongwoo mutters conspiratorially under his breath as Woohyun passes him in the hallway, “Woohyun, over here.”

Woohyun pauses and slowly turns to look at Dongwoo in confusion, “What are you doing?” He asks slowly, looking around as if he expects someone to jump out at him any second.

“Hiding from Sunggyu,” Dongwoo says sagely, even though he’s not really hiding from Sunggyu since he knows he’s off with Hoya working on something or another (their next job, probably, though no one really knows).

“Why are you hiding from Sunggyu?” Woohyun asks hesitantly walking towards Dongwoo. He looks like he expects a prank or a trap. Clearly he’s confusing Dongwoo with Sungyeol and Myungsoo.

“Because, I can’t very well plan his super secret surprise birthday when he’s around can I?” Dongwoo asks as if it’s obvious. It should be pretty obvious.

“Why are you planning a super secret surprise party for Sunggyu?” Woohyun says with a frown, “That kind of seems like something Sunggyu will hate.”

“That’s why it’s a _surprise_ party.” Dongwoo says. If Woohyun could just keep up that would be much appreciated.

“Right,” Woohyun says with a twitch of his lips like he thinks Dongwoo is being ridiculous. Dongwoo probably is being ridiculous but who cares. 

“We can’t let such an important milestone birthday pass, it’s not every day you turn 40,” Dongwoo says straight faced.

“No way Sunggyu is 40,” Woohyun says shaking his head. Then he pauses, “Is he?” 

Dongwoo can’t help laughing at that, “Of course not. But he’s closer than he’d have you think,” Dongwoo says, still laughing. Sunggyu has been claiming he’s 27 for what feels like a decade to Dongwoo. In fact he’s so adamant about it that Dongwoo would probably believe him, if it wasn’t for the fact he knows Sunggyu is a year older than him. 

“Aren’t we all,” Woohyun says musingly.

Dongwoo nods in agreement, “Well, except Sungjong. I’m pretty sure he’s a vampire, eternally 20 or something.”

“After everything we’ve learned about everyone here it wouldn’t even surprise me,” Woohyun shakes his head with a sigh, leaning against the wall next to where Dongwoo is crouching, “so what do you want me for?”

“You need to help me, I can’t pull this all off alone,” Dongwoo says.

 “Couldn’t someone else help you” Woohyun asks with a sigh. Dongwoo thinks he’s gotten fluent enough in Woohyun language though to know that Woohyun is just putting it on for show.

“Myungsoo and Sungyeol are together doing god knows what, I don’t really want to find out,” Dongwoo says with a put upon shudder that’s only slightly exaggerated, “We’ve already established Hoya is with Sunggyu.”

“Sungjong?” Woohyun suggests though it’s rather feeble. 

 Dongwoo just fixes him with an unimpressed look. Is that the best Woohyun has?

“Okay, okay I see your point,” Woohyun concedes, “Though eventually you’re probably going to need everyone’s help. Or at the very least to clue them in so they don’t start interrogating you whilst Sunggyu is around.” 

“Eventually,” Dongwoo agrees with a nod, “But you need to help me with everything, you can be like my co-conspirator.”

“You just mean you can blame me when Sunggyu is inevitably annoyed about a surprise party, if he doesn’t find out before hand and skin us both alive,” Woohyun says drolly. 

“Glad you agree,” Dongwoo smiles brightly, extending a hand into the air. Woohyun rolls his eyes but takes his hint and grabs his hand to help him to his feet, “Now, the first thing we need to figure out is how many balls it would take to turn the living room into a ball pit..”

 

 

 

♝♝♝ 

Sungyeol kind of resents being put on distraction duty.

Sure in theory putting Sungyeol and Myungsoo on it makes the most sense but really Sungyeol thinks that he’s much too valuable of a resource to be wasted.

Sunggyu says that it’s because Sungyeol doing his part of the plan whilst Dongwoo is around wouldn’t be suspicious, but Sungyeol thinks Woohyun’s assessment that it’s because he and Myungsoo get up to enough ‘shit’ that it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary is more in line with Sunggyu’s way of thinking.

Whatever the reason Sunggyu has, Sungyeol finds himself one morning, earlier than any human being should ever be out of bed, sitting on the kitchen counter furtively ‘arguing’ with Myungsoo. 

Sungyeol isn’t sure how anyone could actually believe they’re arguing, one look at Myungsoo’s face shows he’s three seconds away from bursting into laughter, and yet Dongwoo comes into the kitchen with that frown he wears whenever there’s conflict between members (Sungyeol thinks Dongwoo uses it to try and guilt them out of fighting and honestly about half the time it works). 

This time (since they’re not actually fighting) it doesn’t.

“It’s five in the morning, what on earth are you doing?” Dongwoo asks them, looking all the world like an unimpressed mother (ever since Mijoo pointed out that Sunggyu and Dongwoo were like the parents of this team Sungyeol has been unable to unsee it), “It’s not a sex thing is it?” 

“Why on earth would we be doing a sex thing in the kitchen?” Sungyeol asks in confusion. Why on earth is Dongwoo assuming Sungyeol is doing any sort of ‘sex thing’ with Myungsoo in the kitchen is a better question, but one he doesn’t particularly want to know the answer to. 

“Kids these days,” Dongwoo shrugs, then, as if remembering why he’s here he asks “What are you doing?

“Sungyeol is trying to tell me that you can make your own voice reverb naturally,” Myungsoo says crossing his arms over his chest and pouting. Honestly he seems to be overselling it, but what would Sungyeol know of these things.

“It’s true,” Sungyeol says, stamping his foot, “I’ll show you.”

“At five in the morning? Other people are sleeping.” Dongwoo says with a shake of his head. 

“Then we’ll go out,” Sungyeol shrugs as if it’s the logical option. It really isn’t but either Dongwoo is half asleep or to worried about them causing a scene to question it (Sungyeol refuses to admit that Myungsoo and him get up to illogical things regularly).

“Can’t this wait?”

“No,” Myungsoo and Sungyeol says in complete synchronisation. Sungyeol would high-five him if they weren’t pretending to argue.

“Alright, let me get changed, someone should keep you two from waking the whole city up,” Dongwoo says leaving the room before sticking his head back in, “Don’t leave without me!” 

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Myungsoo says cheerfully, clearly trying not to laugh.

 

 

 

♙♙♙

 

Dongwoo is one of the best people that Woohyun has ever had the pleasure of meeting. Dongwoo is kind and good and sees the best in everyone. He’s lovely and warm and so very moral.

Except his morals aren’t always a good thing. Dongwoo didn’t grow up in this life the way most of them have, Dongwoo still thinks in a very black and white way. Thinks there are bad things and good things and that’s it. That bad things are excusable under no circumstances. Whilst Sunggyu is highly pragmatic, which has made his whole transition to this life of crime schtick quite smooth, Dongwoo is not. 

Dongwoo for all his empathy, still hasn’t grasped that his new friends are career criminals. Sure they’re working towards what Dongwoo deems a ‘good’ goal now but they’re still thieves. They all still have pasts that Dongwoo would definitely not approve of if he ever found out. 

( “It’s hard, getting close to Dongwoo,” Hoya had told Woohyun once, “Because if he ever finds out about my past, the things I did, then I’m sure he’s never going to want to be in the same room as me ever again.”

Woohyun doesn’t know the exact details of Hoya’s past, but he feels like they might be in the same boat there). 

Woohyun has always known this about Dongwoo, but the day it becomes startlingly clear to him still knocks him off guard. 

They’re sitting through the briefing for a case so insignificant that Sungyeol hasn’t come up with some nonsensical nickname for it. It’s so unremarkable that Myungsoo has seemingly fallen asleep, curled into Sungyeol’s side. It’s such a standard, boring briefing that when Sunggyu had noticed Myungsoo he’d just rolled his eyes and not woken him up or anything. 

It’s unremarkable until the very end, when Sunggyu asks Dongwoo who’d been characteristically quiet through the whole thing, “Is something bothering you about the plan Dongwoo?” 

Dongwoo startles, looking at Sunggyu like a deer in headlights, “No?” he says, though it sounds like a question.

“Is there something bothering you in general then? Woohyun can’t help asking now that Sunggyu has broached it. It’s not that Dongwoo is quiet, that’s usual for planning sessions (about the only time to be honest) it’s the frown creasing his brow, a much less common sight. 

“I guess.. I just don’t understand?” Dongwoo says looking down at his hands.

“Understand what?” Sungyeol asks curiously, looking up from his phone and making sure not to dislodge a still dozing Myungsoo. Everyone is focused on Dongwoo right now (besides the aforementioned sleeping grifter). 

“I don’t understand how you could walk away from your family that easily,” Dongwoo says. 

The entire mood in the room shifts.

With the exception of Sungyeol who was extremely close with his family before they all died, Dongwoo is the only one of their team that has a close relationship with his family. Sungjong and Sunggyu still keep in contact with theirs, sporadically, from what Woohyun can tell. 

Woohyun has no idea about Myungsoo, though he seems like the kind of person that would talk about his family if they were in his life. He doesn’t know details about Hoya, he just knows that his family situation is not good, and his dad was a terrible person. 

Eventually the silence starts to drag so long Dongwoo looks up from his hands. 

Since it seems like no one knows what to say in regards to that, Woohyun takes it upon himself to respond.

“Not everyone’s family is as loving as supportive as yours Dongwoo,” Woohyun reminds him as gently as he can possibly manage.

“Well no, but I can’t imagine anything worth walking away and then trying to hurt your family,” Dongwoo says. Sometimes, sometimes it becomes so fucking obvious how sheltered Dongwoo’s upbringing was. Woohyun doesn’t resent him for it, god knows there’s enough family angst in this team, and if anyone deserves a loving and supporting family it’s Dongwoo. Still, it makes things awkward in moments like this. 

“You more than anyone knows that sometimes you’ve got to walk away from a situation that’s hurting you,” Sunggyu says softly. Woohyun would like to know the story there.

Dongwoo bites his lip, “Yes, but try and fix it first,” He says as if it’s that easy, “Family is important.”

The rest of them exchange looks, Sunggyu looking mildly apologetic at Woohyun. 

“Families can be abusive,” It’s Sungyeol that says that, softly. He’s looking down at Myungsoo, who somehow seems to still be sleeping through this (that or he’s pretending to sleep so he can avoid this whole awkward conversation which Woohyun kind of wishes he could be doing now).  

“Okay, if they’re abusive walk away,” Dongwoo concedes, which Woohyun is secretly very happy about. It’s not like he thinks Dongwoo would ever condone abuse, but the way this conversation has been going has been slightly dangerous, “But don’t _hurt_ them. That only makes you as bad as them,”

Hoya’s hand clenches on his leg, Woohyun isn’t sure if he looks more like he’s going to punch Dongwoo or do something ridiculously out of character like burst into tears. 

Sungyeol is shooting Hoya a sympathetic look (maybe he knows the story, maybe he can just see how uncomfortable Hoya looks), and Woohyun feels like it’s probably only going to be seconds before everyone else notices.

So he does the only think he can think of, he deflects attention onto himself, “My parents were the scum of the earth,” He says quietly, drawing everyone’s eyes to him, “Like not only did they kill and rob people for a living, I was five the first time they used me in a murder scheme,” Woohyun says quietly. He’s never told anyone this, Kibum is the only person who knows because he lived through it too, “I think you can forgive me for not staying around, and salting the earth a bit when I left.” 

“Oh,” Dongwoo says, as if this has genuinely not occurred to him. Dongwoo can’t have been that naive though, could he?

“Bad people are bad people; their family are as entitled to deal with them as we are.” Sungyeol says matter-of-factly, “More so perhaps.”

“I don’t like the idea, of families being that shitty,” Dongwoo admits, looking down again, “That you have to take them down,” Plenty of their targets have had a family, so Woohyun doesn’t know where Dongwoo has got this idealised notions of families from. Maybe he’s thought family was an exception to these people (and in some cases it is). 

“In a perfect world they wouldn’t have to,” Sungjong says assertively, “But if we lived in a perfect world we’d all be out of a job, wouldn’t we.” Sungjong’s tone has a note of finality, like he’s ending the subject. 

There is a silence that descends upon the room, they all know the subject is closed, but no one’s really sure where to go from here.

Eventually Sunggyu sighs, “Someone wake Myungsoo up,” he says, even though they all know that task’s going to fall to his human pillow, “And make sure he’s up on the plan.” 

Woohyun has to try not to laugh when Myungsoo’s knee twitches, proof he’s awake (though Woohyun doesn’t know how long he’s been awake), though he puts on quite a good show of being sleepy when Sungyeol shakes him awake. and then they’re back into the monotony of the plan, and the little incident, clash of beliefs, is put behind them.

Hoya seeks Woohyun out later, “You didn’t have to do that for me,” He says, sidling up to Woohyun when he’s making dinner. It’s a smart choice, no one ever comes into the kitchen when Woohyun is cooking out of fear he’s going to rope them into helping.

“I didn’t do it _for_ you,” Woohyun says keeping his eyes steadfastly on the pot in front of him, “I did it because Dongwoo is going to have to learn sooner or later the world isn’t black and white.”

“His intentions are good,” Hoya says, when the silence drags.

“Dongwoo has never had a bad intention in his life,” Woohyun says with a laugh, because it’s true, “But intentions aren’t everything.

 “I suppose they’re not. You still didn’t have to do that,” Hoya really wants to talk about it. Woohyun sighs and turns around,

“I did it because I came to peace with my parents being shitty a long time ago, I don’t think you have,” Woohyun says honestly.  

Hoya flinches, “Just my dad,” he whispers.

Woohyun nods but doesn’t otherwise acknowledge him, “So the least I could do was let Dongwoo know you didn’t have to do it,” Woohyun says, still feeling awkward and uncomfortable with this whole talking about feelings thing. 

He turns back around to the stove, “You’re a good person Nam Woohyun,” Hoya says softly.  

“I try,” Woohyun says as nonchalantly as possible. Though he does try, as hard as he possibly can.

He can feel Hoya’s eyes on him at that admission but he doesn’t say anything. Still Woohyun is surprised when he feels arms wrap around his waist from behind him, “Thank you,” Hoya mutters, words buried in Woohyun shoulder.

 A year ago Woohyun might have stiffened at that, by now though he’s used to it so he just rolls his eyes and smiles, “Any time,” He says, and to his surprise he truly means it.

 

 

 

♔♚♔

 

Sunggyu waits half an hour after he gets the all clear from Sungyeol, just to make sure they don’t come back unexpectedly, before he’s rousing the rest of his team.

There’s a half-hearted grumble from Hoya about the time of day, but everyone knew about the plan so thankfully there’s no too much resistance from anyone. 

They gather in Woohyun’s room just in case Dongwoo does come back early and notice them conspicuously planning in a public space.

Hoya looks half asleep from his position curled up on the bed, but Sunggyu takes it.

“Okay, Sungyeol and Myungsoo should be able to keep Dongwoo occupied for a couple of hours so status report,” Sunggyu says, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Well,” Woohyun says, leaning against the headboard, “My part of the plan is done and dusted, charter flights arranged, airport staff conned, easy peasy,” he says with a small smile.

“Sungyeol’s done as well,” Hoya offers sleepily, “Which I’m sure you know.”

Sunggyu nods, “As far as anyone who has gone looking is concerned the Jang family of Guri have gone off on vacation to America. Flights, hotels, web history, everything is covered.” Sunggyu says. If he sent Sungyeol away the least he can do is boast about his skills for him.

Woohyun pokes Hoya between the shoulder blades, “Don’t fall asleep, if I have to sit through this so do you.” 

“We’re helping Dongwoo, you don’t have to be here,” Sunggyu points out, though he knows Woohyun is joking. Knows everyone is whole heartedly committed to this.

“We could help Dongwoo at a more reasonable hour,” Sungjong says with a long suffering sigh, “But yes, I’m also done, key obtained, etc.” 

“Hoya?” Sunggyu asks the only person here not to offer anything yet. 

“Yes I’ve talked to Soojung, yes she’s going to pull a job in Singapore and make it look like it’s us,” Hoya says, batting away Woohyun’s hand (why he’s still poking Hoya is anyone’s guess).

“Alright,” Sunggyu says, clapping his hands together, “Well then I’ll get in contact with Ailee and we’ll start.”

 

 

 

♖♖♖

It’s hard to miss the way Sungjong has been looking more and more like he is three seconds away from snapping, like a too-tight drum skin, ever since everything with Sungyeol had gone down.

As Dongwoo walks in on him in the gym one morning, it’s even harder to miss the way he’s favouring one leg over the other. If Dongwoo had to guess, not as a medical expert but rather someone who has injured himself once or twice, he would say that Sungjong has done a hamstring.

The way Sungjong is taking his aggression out on the punching bag instead of doing the usual tricks and gymnastics and very rarely cardio exercises that are his staple, worries Dongwoo a little. Not a lot, he’s not going to run off and tell Sunggyu he thinks Sungjong is compromised (which he 100% would If he believed he was). Enough that he wants to help though. 

They’re the only ones around Sunggyu, Woohyun and Hoya were working on their latest jobs and he assumes that means Sungyeol and Myungsoo are off doing whatever they’ve been so preoccupied with these days. It’s the perfect time to approach Sungjong.

He walks further into the gym, slowly, trying to decide what to do. Sungjong already knows he’s there, even if the tense set of his shoulders hadn’t given it away, Dongwoo would have assumed he knew. Sungjong is almost impossible to sneak up on. 

“Hyung,” Sungjong finally acknowledges him once Dongwoo is almost level with Sungjong’s chosen punching bag, “Fancy seeing you here.”

“I could say the same,” Dongwoo says lightly, rolling his shoulders and dropping his gym bag.

“Where are the others?” Sungjong asks like he doesn’t care, ignoring Dongwoo’s gentle teasing. 

“Sunggyu took Hoya and Woohyun off to work on the plan,” Dongwoo says, even though Sungjong knows this. Then he adds, just to see the way Sungjong tenses, confirming Dongwoo’s suspicions, “Myungsoo and Sungyeol are, I don't actually know.”

Sungjong doesn’t say anything though, so Dongwoo prods again (gently because sometimes people need pushed - just not in the bull in a china shop way so many of the members of this team favour), “What are you doing in the gym?”

“Contrary to popular belief you share with others, the gym is not your personal space,” Sungjong says dryly. 

“Well no, but besides Hoya, the rest of you seem to be allergic to the place,” Dongwoo says. That’s not true, he knows Myungsoo likes to stay fit and Sungyeol does it at night when he thinks no one is watching (though thankfully Hoya has been coaxing Sungyeol intro training with him lately so that he doesn’t overexert himself as best Dongwoo can tell).

Dongwoo still says it, just to see the way Sungjong’s mouth turns up, just slightly. 

“Are you angry at Hoya?” Dongwoo asks, trying to make himself sound as clueless as possible. He’s found people are way less likely to get upset at him this way.

“No,” Sungjong says shortly

“So who are you angry at?” Dongwoo tries again, “Myungsoo? Sun-”

 “I’m not angry,”  Sungjong says cutting him off. The viciousness with which he’s hitting the punching bag is in stark contrast to his words. 

“Okay,” Dongwoo says, starting to stretch, “Then why are you attacking the punching bag.”

“I’ve got to keep my hand to hand skills up to scratch, that’s what you’re always telling me” Sungjong says. It might be convincing, except it’s Hoya who always says that to Sungjong. Dongwoo is pretty sure Sungjong is never going to be sticking around anywhere long enough to fight, preferring to stick to his strengths (Dongwoo cannot blame him).

“Spar with me then,’ Dongwoo decides. Sungjong looks sceptical so he continues, “A punching bag isn’t going to hit you back so that’s hardly hand to hand skills,” Dongwoo says.

Sungjong looks up reluctantly, before stepping away from the bag, “Okay, let’s go then.”

Dongwoo goes easy on Sungjong, he always goes easy on everyone that’s not Hoya because you don’t increase your skills by someone so much better than you just beating you into the ground constantly. He goes easier than usual on Sungjong, though making sure it’s not so easy that Sungjong notices. 

He makes sure Sungjong doesn’t put too much pressure on the leg, doesn’t twist it in the wrong direction. Sungjong clearly needs an outlet for something, whatever it is he’s working through (Dongwoo can only guess and he doesn’t want to give Sungjong the disservice of doing that). Dongwoo will let him have that, he’ll just make sure he doesn’t hurt himself in the pursuit of that.

He’s seen teammates do that more often than he’d like.

“You’re favouring your right hamstring,” Dongwoo says when they finish their last bout, lying side by side on the mat. 

Sungjong makes a noise that would be a grunt, if Sungjong would ever be uncouth enough to grunt.

“Don’t hide an injury, you can take it easy on yourself,” Dongwoo says, once they’re warming down, “God knows we have enough of those kind of idiots on the team already,” he adds, hoping a joke will lighten Sungjong up slightly.

It doesn’t, instead he goes totally stiff and something, Dongwoo’s not sure he can put a name to an emotion that raw, flits across his face before it’s gone. “Thanks for the advice hyung, but I’m fine,” Sungjong says, standing up (still favouring his leg), and swinging his bag over his shoulder.

“Well, if you’re ever not, it’s okay to ask for help.” Dongwoo says. He’s not talking about the hamstring, about physical injuries anymore.

Sungjong knows it too, if the way he smiles is any indication, “Thanks, if I ever am not fine I’ll be sure to let you know.”

As he walks way, Dongwoo gets the feeling that’s an empty promise. 

 

 

 

♘♘♘

 

At some point, and Sungjong has lost track of when, it became a sort of ‘tradition’ to have a sit down meal once a week with the whole team. It was Dongwoo’s idea initially, of course it was, and whilst it had met complaints at the time, now it’s become such a routine part of their lives that it’s disconcerting when someone is missing or it doesn’t happen. 

It’s at one of these weekly dinners that Sunggyu puts the final phase of the reunite Dongwoo with his family (no one has been able to come up with a catchy name, and honestly Sungjong finds he likes the straight forward description) into action.

The rest of them wait with baited breath since Sunggyu hasn’t actually told them what his part of the plan actually entails.

“So,” Sunggyu says casually as they’re eating the dinner that Woohyun and Hoya had prepared for them (it needed to be extra special Woohyun had insisted), “Dongwoo, I should probably mention that I need Ailee’s help with our next job.”

Dongwoo’s hands still, chopsticks halfway between his bowl and mouth, “Oh,” he says, trying to sound casual and failing. Even if he’d succeeded the way he keeps looking at Sunggyu significantly and them flicking his eyes around the room is a dead give-away, “Really?”

 “Yes, so she’ll be coming here next week, is that okay?” Sunggyu asks blandly, continuing to eat his food.

Dongwoo puts his chopsticks down, “Yes?” he says, voice slightly, strangled is the best word Sungjong can think of, “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“I have a question,” Sungyeol raises his hand theatrically once it becomes clear no one else is going to say anything, “Who is Ailee?”

It strikes Sungjong as odd that Sungyeol doesn’t already know that (since he seemingly knows everything about all of them) but he doesn’t have time to dwell on that because Sunggyu answers, “Ailee is Dongwoo’s wife.”

Well, that is not what Sungjong is expecting.

If everyone wasn’t paying attention before they certainly are now.

“Ex-wife,” Dongwoo corrects awkwardly, when the silence drags.

“Well no one has applied for any divorce so she’s technically still your wife,” Sunggyu says as if it’s a discussion they’ve had multiple times and never agreed on. 

“Separated then,” Dongwoo says, looking down at his plate. 

Sungjong feels bad that Dongwoo’s personal life has become dinner table conversation (especially when he’s clearly so very uncomfortable with it) so he takes a look around the table. Sungyeol looks like he’s following now and Woohyun doesn’t look surprised in the least, whilst Hoya and Myungsoo are exchanging confused looks. Sungjong’s glad he’s not the only one that never in a million years saw that coming.

“You don’t look particularly surprised,” Sungjong scoffs under his breath to Woohyun, though the way Hoya is watching them shows he’s at least listening. Myungsoo has gotten Dongwoo involved in a conversation about who knows what though, so thankfully he’s not paying attention to the gossip.

“It makes sense,” Woohyun shrugs. It doesn’t particularly make sense, given how Dongwoo is about his family Sungjong is surprised he would leave a wife behind, estranged or not. Woohyun has always seen some obscure things and missed the blindingly obvious.

Which reminds him, “I cannot believe,” Sungjong scoffs, looking right at Woohyun, “That you were more surprised that those two are ‘married’,” he says nodding his head towards Hoya who’s still watching, amusement clear on his face, “Than you are that Dongwoo was married.”

“I wasn’t surprised those two-” Woohyun starts to say before they’re cut off my Myungsoo’s giggle. 

They all turn to look to Myungsoo who’s now hiding his face in Hoya’s shoulder. The dinner devolves back into its usual chaotic mess at that, but Dongwoo looks tense for the rest of the night.

 

♖♖♖

The scene that Dongwoo walks into when he returns to their apartment a couple of hours after he knows Sunggyu was due back, makes Dongwoo want to turn on his heels and leave (as guilty as that thought makes him feel).

He’s not entirely sure what he was expecting to come back to, controlled chaos as Sunggyu scolded the kids for the mess they’d created whilst they’d been away probably, but he knows it’s not this. 

Sungyeol and Sunggyu as standing close together in the kitchen, whispering furtively, though in a way that’s slightly more heated than their tones imply, if the way that Sunggyu has a death grip on Sungyeol’s sleeve means anything.

Dongwoo passes them by, on his way to the lounge room. Once there he’s surprised to find Hoya sitting on the couch, back to Dongwoo as Woohyun sits next to him, knee pressed together as he seems to be touching Hoya’s face. Dongwoo is very confused by the scene until he walks further around to discover that Woohyun is gently cleaning blood off Hoya’s face, as Hoya looks over his shoulder eyes unseeing. 

Dongwoo swallows. That look makes his skin run cold because it’s so fucking empty.

Dongwoo knows with certainty, without having to ask that Myungsoo isn’t anywhere in the house.

He stands in the corner and watches as Woohyun gently applies butterfly strips to the cut running the length of Hoya’s cheek. Watches as Woohyun mutters gently to Hoya and Hoya doesn’t speak, just shakes his head minutely. Dongwoo can’t hear what they’re saying, but by the brief way Woohyun looks suddenly _sad_ before his mask slips back in place it can’t have been anything good.

Eventually, when he can’t stand to watch them anymore he seeks Sunggyu out in the kitchen. Sungyeol is still with him but they’re standing further apart now. 

“What did Myungsoo do?” Dongwoo asks, when they both look at him.

“What makes you think Myungsoo did anything?” Sunggyu asks curiously, eyebrow raised.

“Well Woohyun is looking after Hoya’s wounds and Myungsoo is nowhere to be seen. Plus Sungyeol looks like he’s had an earth shattering revelation or learned the world isn’t round or something, so,” Dongwoo shrugs. He can be perceptive, sometimes (when things are really blatantly obvious) and right now there is essentially a giant neon sign hanging over everyone’s head. 

“They were arguing, about something, in French. Sungjong won’t tell us what about, a girl I think,” Sungyeol says, looking at the bench and not Dongwoo, “It was really nasty, Hoya told Myungsoo he didn’t care what he thought. Then we think Myungsoo threw a picture frame at Hoya and stormed out of here.” 

“Before you say anything I sent Sungjong after him to make sure he doesn’t pick a fight with a gang or try rob the Louvre or something,” Sunggyu says rubbing at his eyes. Dongwoo feels for him, they all hate internal conflict, but Sunggyu is the one it’s a real _problem_ for. Especially when it’s between Myungya (something Dongwoo has never seen before - Myungsoo's brief stint of ignoring Hoya not really qualifying as ignoring. It's honestly thought he never _would_ see).  

“Do you think something happened? When they were gone?”  Dongwoo asks instead, thoughtfully. The two of them hadn’t been away that long, but something had shifted when they came back a few weeks ago, though Dongwoo had yet to figure out what (neither had Woohyun if he was to be believed). 

“Who knows,” Sunggyu says with a shift of his shoulder, “The better question is how long are they…” he trails off, as his phone beeps. They hold their breath as he checks his messages before he says, “Myungsoo is on his way back.”

“Okay,” Dongwoo nods deciding he needs to do something to be productive, “Last month, you said you’d caught wind of one of SM’s guys in the city?” Dongwoo says, turning to Sungyeol. 

“Well, one of their girls. Yeah, a member of Jessica’s ex-team I believe,” Sungyeol says as if he’s confused by the direction the conversation is going. He should learn to keep up, “But she doesn’t even seem to know we’re in the city, we decided to keep an eye on her from afar since she’s not really a threat.”

“I know that and you know that, but Myungsoo doesn’t,” Dongwoo says hoping they get it now. 

“Are you sure you want to do that?” Sunggyu asks him softly, touching his shoulder. Dongwoo nods, “Since I assume your plan is to distract Myungsoo?”

“Hoya clearly needs space but I want to help,” Dongwoo says, squaring his shoulders, “besides I’ve done my military service, how much worse can a haughty, pissed off Myungsoo be?” 

“I feel like that’s probably one of those questions that you’re going to regret asking,” Sungyeol says with a wry smile. 

“No,” Dongwoo says with a determined shake of his head, “Myungsoo isn’t going to be a brat because I won’t let him.” 

With perfect timing the door opens. Dongwoo rushes out to the entrance, grabbing Myungsoo’s arm before he can take his shoes off, “Nuh-uh, come on Myungsoo we’ve got a job to do.” 

“What?” Myungsoo says looking equal parts confused and annoyed, “now.” 

“Yes, I know you want to sulk about your lovers spat,” Dongwoo says as he slips his own shoes on, “But we have more important things to do, come on.”

 He drags Myungsoo out of the house without giving him a chance to complain. 

 

 

  

♝♝♝

Ailee shows up a day before their plan is supposed to go into effect and Sungyeol is struck by how interesting her relationship with Dongwoo is. It’s awkward yet also effortless, familiar but in the way that something you knew a long time ago was, like you still liked it but weren’t sure where it fit.

Sungyeol had known Dongwoo was married, at the start Sunggyu and Dongwoo had made it so easy to find out everything about them (Sungyeol had to hide mentions of that marriage when he did his cleaning up of Dongwoo’s past.

He’d just never put together this ‘Ailee’ Sunggyu sometimes mentioned was Lee Yejin, Dongwoo’s wife (why would he have?). 

Sungyeol’s curious what happened there, because they both clearly still love each other, but he’s not curious enough to ask.

Especially not when they’ve got more important things to worry about at the moment.

Like telling Dongwoo they’re bringing his family out to him tomorrow so that he can get his freak out over and done with before they’re actually here. 

They wait until Ailee has gone off with Woohyun and Sungjong to ‘explore the city’ (they’ve actually gone to put the last minute bits and pieces into place) before Sunggyu drops the bombshell.

As soon as Sunggyu tells Dongwoo his face pales.

“No no, but you can’t” Dongwoo says looking panicked, “No one can know.” 

Sungyeol expected Dongwoo to have a knee jerk panicked reaction but he didn’t expect him to look so thoroughly distressed. Sungyeol can only guess that Dongwoo spent so long convincing himself he can never see his family again in order to keep them safe it’s probably the only thing running through his head right now. He probably thinks they’re putting his family in danger.

 The thing is though, Dongwoo has always been extreme in that regard. Sungyeol doesn’t blame him, better safe than sorry.

They’ve taken down SM, and inadvertently a large chunk of the South Korean Government. They’ve taken down business men and politicians and one very pissed and very connected British Properly mogul. If they can do all that, they can get Dongwoo an afternoon with his family. 

A piece of cake, especially when pretty much everyone they’ve ever encountered over the course of their work has been willing and enthusiastic to help when asked. Dongwoo just brings that out in people it seems. 

“Relax,” Sungyeol says calmly, slinging an arm over Dongwoo’s shoulder, “We’ve got this. Do you really think we, Sunggyu, didn’t think through every single detail before this went into effect?” 

“Honestly he’s been more insufferable than usual, you’re really lucky that you missed most of it,” Myungsoo speaks up cheekily from where he’s sitting on the table in front of Hoya. Sungyeol hadn’t thought the two of them were listening, but that’s a mistake he will one day learn to stop making. 

“We have thought everything through, it will be fine,” Sunggyu promises.

Dongwoo still looks nervous, like he thinks all their enemies are going to descend from the ceiling and kidnap his family (who aren’t even there yet).

“Do you think after everything we’ve done,” Hoya speaks up, quietly, “That we can’t do this for you?” 

“Do you think after everything you’ve done for us,” Myungsoo adds with a soft little smile, “That we _wouldn’t_ do this for you.”

Dongwoo looks like he’s about to cry so Sunggyu goes in for the kill, “Dongwoo your family misses you. Don’t you want to see them? To meet your niece?” 

And then the tears come, “Yes,” Dongwoo nods, “As long as you’re sure.”

“Trust us,” Sunggyu says wrapping Dongwoo in a hug, as Sungyeol steps away, “We have more people on this than you could imagine.”

“Pretty much everyone we’ve ever met,” Sungyeol adds, going over to stand with Hoya and Myungsoo since he figures Sunggyu knows Dongwoo and his family best. 

“I can’t believe you just had to out cheese me Kim Myungsoo,” Hoya whispers to Myungsoo as Sungyeol approaches, “There I was going for profound and touching and you had to go further.”

Myungsoo smiles innocently and shrugs, “It’s not my fault I just have a much better sense for emotions and sentiment and you’re as loving and supporting as a brick wall.” 

“I’ll show you a brick wall,” Hoya growls and then the two of them are off, wrestling on the floor.

And if Ailee looks totally shocked when she comes back to find those two wrestling and Dongwoo still crying into Sunggyu’s shoulder, well she’ll very quickly get used to it. 

 

 

 

♖♖♖

THE ONE GREAT STEP JOB

One of these days, Sunggyu is going to have to start having conversations with members of his team himself instead of sending Dongwoo to do it.

That’s Dongwoo’s greatest wish at least, although he doesn’t have much hope that it will ever eventuate. 

It’s why he’s not particularly surprised when Sunggyu sends Dongwoo and Sungyeol off to make sure nothing important or potentially revealing has been left behind in the base they’ve been using for the past month. Of course it’s a task that needs done and Sunggyu was never going to send Hoya or Myungsoo (or go himself), but Dongwoo is suspicious.

Especially when Sunggyu sends him that one pleading look he’s gotten so used to receiving when Sunggyu wants him to do something as they head out the door. 

Sungyeol is mostly silent as they drive over, a rare occurrence when he’s not glued to one of his devices (and even then unless he’s working on something _really_ important he’ll chatter away to whoever is in the room with him - usually Myungsoo or Sungjong). 

Dongwoo doesn’t mind silence, and Sungyeol’s clearly thinking some things through so he doesn’t comment.

It’s tense, when they get to their destination, and Dongwoo thinks that’s only partially because they don’t know if SM has compromised it yet or not (Dongwoo doesn’t think they will find it - thinks finding them is probably not SM’s top priority tight now - rather it’s something they’re going to have to worry about in a few months). 

Dongwoo’s right though, when they push the door open hesitantly, Sungyeol making sure to stay behind Dongwoo, that no one has visited this place. It’s exactly the same as the way they left it.

They get to work awkwardly, packing up the abandoned bits and pieces in the communal area. 

It takes fifteen minutes for Sungyeol to crack.

“So, have we been sent on this mission because Sunggyu has palmed the scolding Sungyeol like he’s the naughty kid in the principal’s office off to you?” Sungyeol asks in a way he probably thinks is casual.  

“No, you were sent because you wouldn’t let anyone else touch your tech and I was sent because I’m the least likely to complain.” Dongwoo says. It’s a lie, but it’s a plausible lie.

“You mean I’m not going to get a lecture about how angry you are with me and how much this is my fault and I’m very lucky my behaviour didn’t lead to Terrible Very Bad Things?” Sungyeol asks sceptically with an ugly, bitter laugh, “Forgive me if I don’t believe you.” 

“I’m not angry at you,” Dongwoo says calmly as they carefully pack up Sungyeol’s computers, “Frustrated and annoyed yes, but not angry. Because we’ve all seen what anger towards each other does and I don’t ever want to be a part of that.”

Sungyeol gets that look on his face, the one that means he has a snarky comment on the tip of his tongue but for whatever reason he’s not going to say it. Dongwoo’s glad, he’s not angry at Sungyeol but he needs to learn to hold his tongue.  

“How noble,” Sungyeol says eventually, “I’m sure everyone else shares that sentiment.”

Dongwoo shrugs, because he can’t speak for anyone else.

“Right, I’m done with the computers,” Sungyeol says, very much lying because there are chords and boards and things that Dongwoo can’t even begin to identify strewn everywhere, “I’m going to check the bathroom.”

Dongwoo lets him go without comment because if he’s volunteering to check the bathroom he really doesn’t want to be here and Dongwoo isn’t going to force him (And because he really doesn’t want to check the bathroom).

Dongwoo finishes in the main rooms - except for Sungyeol’s computer things - and moves on. 

Eventually, when he’s done with his own room, Dongwoo realises he hasn’t seen Sungyeol in a while.

He doesn’t panic, they’re safe here, but he does go in search of him. Dongwoo suspects he’s probably gotten caught up in something in his own room, or is just being lazy and trying to get out of work (Sungyeol’s habit of doing everything possible to avoid having to do any sort of heavy work is part of the reason sending Sungyeol was not the most logical choice Sunggyu could have made).

Dongwoo is wrong. He doesn’t find Sungyeol in his room. 

He’s less surprised than he would have expected to find him in Hoya’s room, sitting on his bed.

He’s got a photo frame n his hand, but as soon as he hears Dongwoo in the doorway he puts it down on the bedside table, face down.

Dongwoo doesn’t much care for Hoya and Myungsoo’s private photos (wonders why Sungyeol does) so he doesn’t give it much thought.

“What are you doing?” Dongwoo asks Sungyeol, when it’s quite obvious what he’s doing.

“Sorry,” Sungyeol says, sounding anything but sorry, “You caught me.”

“Caught you snooping through Myungya’s stuff?” Dongwoo asks curiously (he’s not sure when he picked the habit of smashing their names together up from Sungyeol but, he feels stupid as soon as he says it).

“Anything to get out of actually doing work, right?” Sungyeol says self-deprecatingly.  

“You were worried,” Dongwoo says leaning against the doorframe, “About Myungsoo.”

“Obviously,” Sungyeol snorts as if he thinks Dongwoo is stupid for saying it (if people _said_ things around here more often there’s be less misunderstandings), “He was kidnapped by SM we were all worried.”

“Sungyeol,” Dongwoo says, hoping his tone conveys a light reprimand as well as gentle supportiveness. Dongwoo is no Woohyun or even Myungsoo though, his voice is mostly his voice.

It seems to work though because Sungyeol looks up at Dongwoo with wide eyes.

“Myungsoo is my favourite person on the planet,” he tells Dongwoo earnestly. Well Dongwoo was not expecting that confession of all things, “I mean don’t get me wrong I have no desire to marry him and adopt twenty kittens or puppies or children or whatever his long term life plan is. I don’t want him to rely on me as much as he relies on Hoya - as much as they rely on each other - I don’t know anyone but those two could handle that level of emotional co-dependency it sounds terrifying and stifling, but I adore him more than anyone else. He’s my _best friend_ but that doesn’t feel, that doesn’t feel like it describes enough.”

Dongwoo had known that Sungyeol and Myungsoo were close, anyone with eyes could see it but he’s surprised by the confession, said so matter-of-factly from Sungyeol, someone who's all about keeping his cards close to his chest.

“Myungsoo is your favourite person on the planet,” Dongwoo repeats because he doesn’t know what else to say, he’d been dumped with information but none of it was useful.

“Oh you’re full of wisdom and big words today aren’t you,” Sungyeol scoffs sarcastically, but it’s half hearted, no heat behind it. Just Sungyeol’s usual defence mechanisms after such an emotionally charged confession. 

“I don’t know what you want me to say,” Dongwoo admits.

“I don’t, I don’t blame myself for Myungsoo being kidnapped, unlike everyone else on this fucking team,” Sungyeol says, staring with unseeing eyes at the back of the picture frame, “I know it’s partially the result of my actions, but Woohyun is impulsive he might have jumped the gun anyway, they might have known all along and taken Myungsoo or Woohyun anyway. The butterfly effect and all maybe this was the best possible outcome, maybe if Woohyun hadn’t gotten it wrong him and Sungjong would have ended up dead.”

Sungyeol is just, saying whatever comes into his head, Dongwoo realises with a start. Sungyeol is usually spewing all kinds of nonsense, but it’s controlled nonsense. It’s nonsense with a purpose, even if that purpose is to annoy or confuse or fill an awkward silence.  This though, this is pure emotional dribble. This is Sungyeol exposing something ugly and raw and vulnerable to Dongwoo.

Dongwoo doesn’t know what to do with it. Vulnerable Sunggyu is a cakewalk to him, Woohyun and Hoya are easy to deal with, even Myungsoo. Sungyeol though. Sungyeol and Dongwoo are very different people with very different world views and Dongwoo is sure saying the wrong there could set Sungyeol off into hysterics.

Perhaps an exaggeration, but he’d rather not find out.

“I don’t blame myself. But I was so, so scared.” Sungyeol says looking back at Dongwoo this time, “And I don’t, I didn’t have any right to that.”

“You’re his best friend. You’re his teammate. You had a right to be scared, we all had a right to be scared.” Dongwoo says because this is the truth, “We all were scared.”

“You were all scared for Myungsoo.” Sungyeol says, biting his lip, “I was scared in the same way I’m sure Hoya was.”

“You were scared for yourself.” Dongwoo says. That was probably said too harshly, but Sungyeol doesn’t seem to mind.

“I was scared to lose my best friend.” Sungyeol says looking at Dongwoo, “And I tried to support Hoya, and I tried to get my job done, and I did, and I’m going to help Myungsoo now but once that’s over, once Hoya and Myungsoo run off to honeymoon in New Zealand together what am I going to do then?” Sungyeol says looking at Dongwoo imploringly.

Dongwoo doesn’t know why Sungyeol is so sure that Hoya and Myungsoo are going to run off together (To New Zealand of all places) but maybe he knows something the others don’t, maybe he’s catastrophising. Dongwoo doesn’t know.

There is one thing he does know though and he tells Sungyeol. 

“You’ll pick up the pieces and keep going. You’ll hack and you’ll code and you’ll mock Sunggyu and probably Skype Myungsoo every day and pretend you don’t spend hours in the gym every evening because you don’t want any of us to know.” Dongwoo says, enjoying the shock on Sungyeol’s face and the gym bit just a little (it’s why he’d said it after all).  

“You say that like nothing has changed.” Sungyeol says. 

“Things have shifted, but nothing’s changed.” Dongwoo says certainly.

“That makes fuck all sense,” Sungyeol says with a snort of laughter. But he’s laughing and that’s what matters, Dongwoo thinks with a smile.

They all need to start smiling again, that’s the only way they’re going to be able to knit themselves back together. 

 

 

 

♟♟♟ 

Despite having been involved with this plan to reunite Dongwoo and his family the entire time, Myungsoo spends the whole time they’re pulling it off behind Dongwoo’s back paranoid something is going to go wrong.

Part of him can’t understand why they’re doing all this for a family (for Dongwoo he gets but for a family?). The part of his brain that sounds suspiciously like Howon tells him that just because his family has been shitty doesn’t mean everyone’s was. 

Myungsoo understands that, but between the team’s history and their marks, Myungsoo’s not sure he’s ever really seen evidence of a non-shitty family.

Then he meets Dongwoo’s family and he gets it.

Sungjong’s gotten them access to some respectable looking apartment in the heart of Osaka (Myungsoo doesn’t know what Dongwoo’s family thinks he gets up to, why he has to go through such great lengths to contact them but he’s certain they can’t know about their illegal activities. No family, no matter how understanding, could understand what they do. Myungsoo’s sure of that). 

Dongwoo’s family is so lovely that it’s overwhelming. Sure they’re cautious of all these strangers at first, but they warm up to them quickly. Myungsoo isn’t quite sure what to do with them in all honesty, and eventually he has to slip away from Dongwoo’s mum just so he can breathe. 

He’s not surprised to find Woohyun and Howon sitting in the corner of the room, away from everyone else. They are the two with the worst family experiences, after all.

“Hi,” Myungsoo says, trying to force his way between them but mostly ending up sitting between their laps, an arm thrown over each of their shoulders.

“Hi gorgeous, what’s up?” Woohyun asks him playfully. 

Myungsoo wrinkles his nose at the stupid pet names (That Woohyun has started to use more and more these days unfortunately), “Not much.” He says, pausing before adding, “Families.”

“I feel you there,” Woohyun nods seriously. Myungsoo doesn’t need to look at Howon to see he agrees. 

“They’re lovely people,” Howon says, because he has to. He sounds surprised, though they really shouldn’t be surprised someone as kind as Dongwoo came from a family of kind people.

“Yeah, it’s nice to know people like that exist,” Myungsoo says, slowly sinking between their laps until he’s sitting on the floor, “They’re just a bit,”

“Much,” Woohyun finished for him softly.

“Yeah,” Myungsoo echoes, rearranging himself (because he’s so uncomfortable) until he’s sitting leaning against Woohyun with his legs in Howon’s lap.  

Something about seeing Dongwoo with his family, makes Myungsoo crave the contact, more than usual.

The three of them sit quietly in their corner and watch together as Sunggyu and Ailee talk in the corner matching fond expressions on their face as they watch Dongwoo. Watch as Sungyeol and Sungjong try and coax Dongwoo’s sister into letting them play with the baby. (And the baby is so tiny, Myungsoo doesn’t think he’s ever seen a child that small before, knows that Jiwon was at least twice her age by the time Howon felt comfortable enough to let Myungsoo meet her). 

“I’m glad, if one of us had to get a good family, not a decent family, a good family it was Dongwoo,” Woohyun says eventually. 

Myungsoo thinks about that, thinks about Sungyeol’s dead family, thinks about Howon’s estranged brother, Woohyun’s parents in jail. His own parents he never met. 

“Yeah,” Myungsoo says, as Howon squeezes his ankle, “I agree,” 

This whole situation is overwhelming and foreign and Myungsoo doesn’t know how to feel about it. but Dongwoo looks so, indescribably happy playing with his niece, chatting with his sister, hugging his family, that Myungsoo finds he would do it a hundred times over. Because Woohyun is right, if anyone deserves this it’s Dongwoo.

 

 

 _Now we know there's nothing awaiting us  
_ _Better than the truth  
_ _I wanted to be part of something  
_ _I've got nothing but time  
_ _so the future is mine_

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternate name for this chapter was 6 time Dongwoo looked out for his team and the one time they all looked out for him, but then there was one scene that didn't fit this theme XD


	20. Chapter Fourteen

**Chapter 14: Woohyun**

_Sometimes bad guys are the only good guys you get._

 

♙♙♙

2013 

 

It’s never been a secret that Woohyun has had problems with Sunggyu’s leadership style in the past; had found him to be something of an overbearing dictator (in his own, slightly unfortunate, choice of words) and naive to the realities of life as a thief. 

Of course he has a much higher regard for Sunggyu now (a combination of Sunggyu getting better and Woohyun less judgemental) but that’s irrelevant 

The point is, even when Woohyun wasn’t the biggest fan of Sunggyu he had always trusted his plans. Trusted Sunggyu knew best, knew what lines not to cross (though part or all of that might be down to Dongwoo) and how to get the job done in the most principled way possible. 

He’s had his trust rewarded, and not once has Sunggyu even given him a reason to doubt that trust.

Until now.

Because right now Sunggyu is sitting at the head of the table calmly discussing how they’re going to need children to pull this job off.

Woohyun bites his tongue as he listens to Sunggyu outline the latest plan, watches as everyone nods along as if that plan makes total sense. Of course there are barbs and jabs thrown at Sunggyu, there always are and Sunggyu is so used to them now he just rolls his eyes in what Woohyun would call fond exasperation, but no one seems to have a problem with this plan involving _children_. 

 “Does this plan, seriously have to hinge on kids though?” Woohyun can’t help asking when it seems no one else will.   

Everyone turns to stare at Woohyun

“Well we can’t exactly pass Myungsoo off as a desperate young dad in a custody battle and not have a single photo of his kid,” Sunggyu says dryly, “So I’d say yes.” 

“Kids are unpredictable, are you really sure it’s wise to involve them?” Woohyun says as calmly as he can manage. Obviously that’s not his problem here but if he approaches Sunggyu with logic rather than emotion he might be able to convince him otherwise (unlikely he knows but possible). 

“It’s a photo, Woohyun, we’re not asking a child to act as a distraction while we rob a bank or something,” Sungyeol says. The one time he’s decided to be on Sunggyu’s side, of course.

“Where are you going to get a child from?” Woohyun can’t help asking, “Kidnap one?”

“Well clearly not,” Sunggyu says straight away. It’s good to see he still has something he wouldn’t do, Woohyun supposes. 

“Well then what?” Woohyun demands, for someone that usually has every detail of every plan completely sorted before briefing the team, Sunggyu’s sure got a huge hole in his plan right now, “You’re going to go up to a woman on the street and offer her money to borrow her kids?”

 Sunggyu looks like he’s considering it before flinching. Judging by Dongwoo’s face he’s probably kicked him under the table. 

 “He’s got a point,” Sungjong says. Any sort of support Woohyun might have been feeling from him went down the drain when he adds, “You should always know how to secure your resources before planning a job around them.”

 “Can’t Sungyeol photoshop one in,” Dongwoo asks consideringly, probably spooked by the suggestion of kidnapping a child. Woohyun can always count on Dongwoo’s moral compass.

“Well sure, if you want it to look like the horrific robot baby from that vampire movie,” Sungyeol says with a scoff. 

Myungsoo giggles at that whilst Sungjong rolls his eyes. Everyone else looks as confused as Woohyun feels which is good.

 “What?” Sunggyu eventually demands.

 “You know what, never mind,” Hoya jumps in with a shake of his head. Maybe he does know what Sungyeol’s on about, “Woohyun has a point.”

 “Look, we’ll get a kid,” Sunggyu says looking appraisingly at Hoya, “Let’s assume we get a kid, can we move on?”

 Woohyun doesn’t really protest because there’s no way any of them are going to be able to drag a kid into this.

 He’s sure of it.

 

 

 

♖♖♖

 PRE BE MINE : MAY 2011 

 

“I am going to launch Kim Myungsoo into the fucking sun,” Dongwoo looks up from the information file for their current job to find Woohyun hurling himself onto the couch with a murderous look on his face, “I am going to cut off his fingers and toes and feed them to him.” 

“I don’t know that would be the best idea,” Dongwoo says looking back at the file.

“Why not? I think I could take him,” Woohyun says, probably flexing his muscles. 

Dongwoo looks up to eye Woohyun thoughtfully, “Probably,” he eventually decides, mostly to soothe Woohyun’s ego, “But you couldn’t take him _and_ Hoya, so you’d best not try.”

“You’d back me up though, right Dongwoo?” Woohyun asks, fluttering his eyelashes at him in that ridiculous way of his. 

“Pass,” Dongwoo says because he quite likes Myungsoo, finds him to be affectionate and kind underneath that awkward shy persona he possesses. Unfortunately Woohyun hasn’t really looked beyond that persona (not that Dongwoo blames him considering that whole punching incident. Dongwoo believes Myungsoo wouldn’t just attack a teammate without a good reason, but he’s yet to hear it).

“Fine, no one on this team wants to back me up, I see how it is,” Woohyun mutters with a frown that’s hopefully exaggerated. 

“Sungjong might, if you asked nicely,” Dongwoo says thoughtfully, not believing for a second Sungjong would actually get involved in something that didn’t directly involve him.

 “What might Sungjong do?” Sungyeol asks, strolling into the room balancing his laptop on one hand whilst he types with the other. Dongwoo’s kind of amazed that in the year they’ve been working together he hasn’t actually seen Sungyeol break any of his own tech despite how carelessly he seems to carry it around (certain other members of course have broken more than Dongwoo previously thought possible).  

“Help Woohyun throw Myungsoo into the sun,” Dongwoo answers cheerfully, completely ignoring the hand gestures Woohyun is making that he can only assume means something along the lines of don’t tell Sungyeol. 

“I think Sungjong has a bit too much of a crush on Hoya to upset him that way,” Sungyeol says as if he’s seriously considering this hypothetical situation.

Woohyun mutters something Dongwoo doesn’t quite catch under his breath, “Why are you planning on throwing Myungsoo into the sun anyway?” Sungyeol asks curiously. 

That’s actually a good question, Dongwoo hadn’t thought to ask. 

“Because he exists, is that not a good enough reason?” Woohyun asks in a way that’s bordering on petulant.  

Sungyeol scrunches up his face like he’s thinking about it before he shakes his head, “Nah, I’m going to go with no.”

 Woohyun mutters something under his breath that Dongwoo doesn’t catch, but it can’t have been too kind if the way Sungyeol flips him off with a frown is anything to go by.  

“What on earth are you doing?” Sungjong asks sounding completely uninterested from where he’s suddenly appeared in the spare armchair in the room (Dongwoo isn’t fooled though - the fact he’s asking means he’s interested).

“We’re having a family meeting about throwing Myungsoo into the sun,” Dongwoo tells him solemnly. 

“We’re not a family!” Woohyun says insistently. Everyone ignores him.

“Is it really a family meeting without Sunggyu?” Sungyeol asks. 

“No, but I don’t think Sunggyu will let us deprive him of a grifter,” Sungjong points out dryly. 

“But can he stop Woohyun? Because if he tried we’d then be down two grifters?” Sungyeol says as if this is a very serious conversation that needs to be had.

“I don’t think Sunggyu would be Woohyun’s biggest problem,” Sungjong retorts triumphantly. 

“Okay fine, no murdering of Myungsoo,” Woohyun says throwing his hands in the air theatrically. Dongwoo is (pretty) sure that he’s joking. Now, “I still vote cutting off his toes and feeding them to him.” 

“No torturing the marks,” Sunggyu says, coming into the room with perfect timing as always. He pauses, looking up at Woohyun, “Or your teammates. Probably your teammates.”

“Myungsoo,” Sungyeol provides helpfully. 

“Yes?” Myungsoo asks and then suddenly the gang is all here (Except for Hoya who is never here), “You called.”

“Not really,” Woohyun says waving Myungsoo away, “We were actually talking about you behind your back.” It’s the truth but he’s passing it off as sarcasm and that’s clever. 

“Only the most awful things, I'm sure,” Myungsoo says cheerfully coming over and forcing himself between Dongwoo and Woohyun on the couch, throwing his legs over Woohyun’s lap. 

“Please don’t,” Woohyun says, pushing Myungsoo away. Myungsoo just shrugs and leans against Dongwoo who gladly lets him.

Myungsoo turns, like he’s going to say something (probably antagonistic) to Woohyun but thankfully Sunggyu butts in, “Well since we’re all here,”

“Almost all here,” Woohyun corrects accusingly.

“Since everyone who matters is here,” Myungsoo says with a bright smile.

“Since everyone but Hoya is here and Hoya is presumably on his way,” Sunggyu pauses, waits for Myungsoo to nod, then continues, “Since pretty much everyone is here, let’s start.”

Sunggyu’s cobbled together distraction meeting is brief before everyone scatters to do their own thing and wait for Hoya to arrive.

“What’s Woohyun’s problem?” Sunggyu asks Dongwoo later that evening as they’re eating dinner, in Sunggyu’s room just so there’s no chance of having to deal with anyone else’s shit.

“Oh, he’s just like you, he doesn’t like people,” Dongwoo says flippantly.

“Woohyun seems to like people just fine,” Sunggyu says with a scoff, though he can’t be serious.

 “You’re both the same, don’t like people because you understand them too well,” Dongwoo continues, even though Sunggyu doesn’t ask, “Except you don’t understand how to interact with people and Woohyun doesn’t understand how to trust people, so instead of trying you just avoid people.”  

Sunggyu turns to look at him, and for a second Dongwoo thinks maybe he’s crossed one of Sunggyu’s weird lines.  

Instead Sunggyu laughs, “Is that so? Maybe you’re really the one that understands people the best.”

“I don’t understand people, I understand my _friends,”_ Dongwoocorrects, because there’s a clear difference. 

 “If you understand your friends so well then want to tell me what Woohyun’s problem with Myungsoo is?” Sunggyu asks him with a raised eyebrow, in business mode now, “Is it going to affect the job?”

“What’s his problem with Myungsoo is besides the whole unplanned brawl you mean?” Dongwoo asks, just to clarify.

 “Woohyun wasn’t really a fan of Myungsoo even before that, don’t try and pull this with me Jang Dongwoo,” Sunggyu says, playfully wagging a finger at him. 

Dongwoo is pretty sure that Sunggyu has already figured this out and is testing him, but he answers anyway, “Woohyun doesn’t like that he hasn’t figured out what makes Myungsoo tick.”

The way Sunggyu smiles at him confirms yes, Sunggyu was just testing him, “Woohyun doesn’t know how to deal with people he can’t read, especially after such a long time. Or people he knows he can’t read; I think he’s still got a very wrong understanding of Hoya.”

“Trauma and pretending to be meaner than he is, what’s that hard to understand?” Dongwoo asks. Of course there’s more to Hoya than that, but Dongwoo thinks those are pretty damn obvious things for Woohyun to be missing.

“I think you’re simplifying it just a little bit,” Sunggyu tells him, though he sounds more amused than anything.

“Well yes, but I think you make it more complicated than it needs to be. Accept people on face value and they’ll give you more. Because people are obviously complicated but I think we make them harder than they need to be. People are people not a mystery to solve.”

Sunggyu looks at him in that odd way that he sometimes does, when Dongwoo says something that surprises him, “How about you go and tell that to Woohyun then Dongfucious,” Sunggyu tells him. 

“That’s a terrible name,” Dongwoo can’t help telling him, because it is, “But I think Woohyun just needs time, he’s never really had a team before.”

“Neither had Sungjong and Sungyeol but they’re perfectly civil to everyone. Except each other,” Sunggyu points out. It’s true, and it’s been like two weeks since those two tried to murder each other so maybe they’re growing up.

 “The difference is that they’ve had friends. I think. Woohyun strikes me as the kind of person that’s never had people to rely on, I think he’s still getting used to it.” Dongwoo says. That’s why he likes to cut Woohyun some slack when he isolates himself but let him know he doesn’t have to. 

 “I think you’re exactly right,” Sunggyu tells him with a smile. That’s probably why, Dongwoo thinks, Sunggyu never really forces Woohyun to do more than the bare minimum the same way he does with the others.

“Well, I’ve picked up a thing or two from you over the years,” Dongwoo laughs.

 “Yeah” Sunggyu says quietly, “But I think I’m the one that’s gotten more from you.”

 

 

 

 

 

♙♙♙

Sungjong is good at a lot of things. Sungjong is obviously good at his job, he’s good at acting like a normal member of society (probably the only member of the team with that particular skill set). Sungjong is good at getting people to like him and he’s good at making himself entirely unremarkable. 

There are some things, very few, that Sungjong is not good at.

 Acting is the top of that list.

After what Woohyun would personally deem the disastrous job he does during the One Great Step fiasco Woohyun means to bring it up to Sunggyu, he really does. He thinks it’s probably understandable that it slips from his priority list after the shit hits the fan.

The thought sits in the back of his head for months, only ever coming into conscious thought at the most inopportune moments. 

Inevitably there’s another job where Sungjong is required to grift. Somehow it goes even worse - Woohyun had scarcely thought that possible. It may be because Sungjong is emotionally distracted but if Hoya hadn’t stepped in the plan certainly would have blown up in his face. 

So, once the job is wrapped, Woohyun doesn’t ask Sunggyu so much as tell him that he’s giving Sungjong grifting lessons. Sunggyu doesn’t put up any argument, Woohyun can’t work out if that’s because he agrees with the idea or he’s shell-shocked Woohyun is taking initiative to better the team (Woohyun is leaning towards the second one which he’s a little offended by).

It’s a job that needs doing and it’ll be a good distraction for Sungjong, but it’s also something that really needs fixing.

It doesn’t surprise Woohyun that the first thing Sungjong does when Woohyun approaches him in the living room and demands Sungjong comes with him is scoff, “Your attempts at distraction are pitiful.” 

“If I wanted to just distract you I’d have picked an easier task like finding a job or attempting to steal Mount Fuji,” Woohyun tells him dryly. The look of offence that flits across Sungjong’s face is almost worth the retaliation he’s probably going to suffer. 

To make sure Sungjong is truly on board though, he can’t help adding, “But we could get a drunk and talk about unrequited love and how much it sucks if you’d prefer.”

Woohyun does have a lecture up his sleeve he wants to give Sungjong about unrequited love and the fact that doesn’t make anyone obligated to like you back, but he figures he’ll save it for when Sungjong is less raw. 

Sungjong glares at him for a second before sighing, “Fine, teach me your greasy ways.” 

“Excellent,” Woohyun claps his hands, before deciding that he probably is going to need help. He’s considering who to enlist to help (There aren’t many options at the moment considering Myungsoo, who would usually be his choice for grifting related expertise, is out for obvious reasons). Thankfully as if taking pity on him, the universe sends someone his way. 

“Dongwoo,” Woohyun says, grabbing his sleeve as he passes by them (though honestly Dongwoo is the best choice all intra-team politics considered), “Come and help us.” 

“Okay,” Dongwoo says cheerfully, looking between the two of them, “With what.”

“Oh no,” Sungjong says shaking his head, “I will admit that maybe my grifting needs work, but there is no _way_ I’m talking grifting lessons from Dongwoo,”

Dongwoo raises his hand, “I do not recommend making me teach anyone to grift.”

“Dongwoo isn’t teaching anyone he’s _assisting_ Sungjong,” Woohyun says, trying not to roll his eyes. Sungjong is going through things, perceived rejection and other things he’s never had to deal with (but every other human being on the planet has). Woohyun needs to be gentle with him. 

Sungjong looks like he’s going to protest again so Woohyun leans closer and hisses, “Talking about feelings with _Dongwoo_.” 

Sungjong’s eyes go wide and he sighs, “Fine, okay let’s go learn to grift.”

“Excellent,” Woohyun smiles brightly, “Let’s go.” 

He is going to need a drink after this, he can tell, and they’ve not even started.  

Maybe Hoya still has that vodka they confiscated from Sunggyu the other day. 

 

 

 

 

♔♚♔ 

POST DESTINY JOB : AUGUST 2013

 

 

To say that the Destiny job explodes in their faces is probably a little bit melodramatic. Their mark is in jail awaiting trial, the money that he conned out of his victims has been returned, and SM didn’t manage to find them.

Sunggyu counts that as a win by any measure. 

There was however, the small matter of Woohyun’s plan falling apart spectacularly and Sunggyu having to step in last minute and fix it.

 As arrogant as it probably sounds, Sunggyu had always assumed that was the way things were going to go. He didn’t _want_ Woohyun to fail, but he knew Woohyun, he knew the strengths and weaknesses of all of his team and Woohyun’s biggest weakness was his inability to do the same (his overblown sense of theatrics didn’t help in the slightest either). 

Sunggyu also knew that _Woohyun_ hadn’t gone in expecting to fail, that Woohyun had tried so hard to prove himself as a good leader and probably feels he’s failed spectacularly.

 He hasn’t failed in Sunggyu’s eyes. Woohyun is an exceptional leader, and it’s not his ability to lead that failed him, not in the slightest. 

Someone probably needs to tell Woohyun that though, before he internalises it in that awful way he has of doing (all the whilst insisting that he doesn’t care what people think). That someone is going to be Sunggyu, because honestly Woohyun would probably only listen to him. 

He spends a couple of days trying to plan his moment carefully before one appears spontaneously (that or Hoya is as crazily perceptive as Dongwoo insists he is). Sungyeol and Sungjong are bickering about something as usual, and Sunggyu isn’t sure exactly what Hoya _says_ to them but five minutes later they’re running out the house, Sungjong yelling “I call dibs on Dongwoo,” as Sungyeol pulls a very confused Myungsoo out behind him.

Hoya follows behind them with a long-suffering sigh (as if he isn’t the biggest instigator on this team) and then the house is quiet. Woohyun is probably in his room so Sunggyu heads there, mulling over in his head how to approach it.

Being direct is always his preferred approach, but he’s not sure if that would make Woohyun defensive. Attempting to skirt around it though will be immediately obvious to Woohyun and make him think he’s being handled with kid gloves, so bluntness it is.

In the end Woohyun makes the decision for him, “Is this the part where you’re coming to tell me that I didn’t fuck up, we all make mistakes and this was a learning experience?” Woohyun asks as Sunggyu pushes the door open before he has the chance to say anything.

“Well no, I mean you did fuck up, but it was a learning experience. So yes and no I guess,” Sunggyu shrugs, leaning against the wall.

Woohyun snorts, “Has anyone ever told you that you’re awful at pep talks?” 

“Once or twice,” Sunggyu says. Or a couple of hundred times, “So it’s a good thing I’m not here to give you a pep talk.” 

“What are you doing then?” Woohyun asks, crossing his arms over his chest.

“When I started out, at my previous employer, before I’d even finished university it was my job to examine people, look for their weaknesses and strengths and anything we could exploit to bring them to justice,” Sunggyu says conversationally. Woohyun looks at him strangely, like he’s not sure where Sunggyu is going with this (that makes two of them), “I was given a job because I was good with plans, I was good at exploiting people.” 

“Okay, I’m very happy for that younger version of you,” Woohyun says dryly. He’s not affecting that bored tone of voice anymore so Sunggyu things that probably counts for something.

“I wasn’t the leader though, I was never the leader because I wasn’t very good at interacting with people,” Sunggyu says with a shrug.

“Now _this_ is not news to me,” Woohyun snorts.

“That is exactly the point Woohyun. I’m naturally a good planner, a good exploiter. I am not a natural leader, honestly it’s pretty safe to say I was a terrible leader when we started this,” Sunggyu says, running a hand through his hair. 

“Wait, leading this team was the first time you ever lead anyone?” Woohyun asks slowly, swinging his legs over the side of his bed so he’s fully facing Sunggyu now. 

“I thought that was pretty obvious,” It’s Sunggyu’s turn for a dry tone now, “You’re the opposite of me.”

“What?” Woohyun asks.

“Your plan was kind of terrible Woohyun, you have an excellent reading on your teammates personality, but not their abilities, you didn’t really have a concept of what exactly they could do. You asked too much of Sungyeol, you didn’t use Hoya and Dongwoo enough, your plan fell apart because you didn’t utilise your resources correctly.” Sunggyu explains. No need to bring up the fact his plan was nonsensical regardless.

 “You’re right, you really are bad at making people feel better,” Woohyun says, drawing in on himself slightly. This is the exact opposite of what Sunggyu was trying to do (this is why comforting is always going to be Dongwoo’s job).

“You were a terrible planner Woohyun but you were a good leader,” Sunggyu says as earnestly as he can manage, “Yes your plan fell apart but you didn’t let the _team_ fall apart and that’s more important.”

Woohyun sits up straighter, not preening under the praise but definitely seeming slightly happier, “Really?”

 “Really,” Sunggyu says with a smile, “I’m a lot of things Woohyun but I’m not going to lie to you about your abilities. That helps no one.”

 “Yeah, we’ve all figured that out,” Woohyun says, though he’s properly smiling now which is a good sign. Sunggyu probably hasn’t fixed Woohyun’s nagging self-doubt, but he doesn’t think anyone can do that. 

 “I might have been naturally good at the planning thing, but I’ve also been at it for ten years. If it’s something you do want to do, then we can work on it,” Sunggyu offers, spur of the moment. 

“Like you said, I don’t think I’m cut out for it that bit,” Woohyun says consideringly, “Honestly, I don’t want your job.” 

No one does, Sunggyu thinks wryly, it’s kind of why he’s doing it, “But, I do want to know a bit more about the limits everyone has,” he turns those big puppy dog eyes that no one, not even Sungjong or Hoya, are immune to on Sunggyu, “For team strength purposes.” 

Sunggyu sighs, but pushes himself off the wall, “Fine, come on then.”

“Where are we going?” Woohyun asks curiously, following behind Sunggyu. 

“We’re going to find the rest of the team and start lesson number one,” Sunggyu says with a smile, “Never underestimate Hoya’s grifting ability.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

♙♙♙

OCTOBER 2013

  

When Woohyun comes back from dinner with Dongwoo and Sungjong he’s slightly surprised to find Hoya waiting for him. He’s grown used to Hoya just breaking into his apartment and waiting for him over the past year (which is something he doesn’t want to examine too closely - not putting up barriers with your team is one thing but Woohyun thinks this is probably going way past that) so that’s not the surprising part. 

The surprising part is Hoya is here when Myungsoo has only been out of the hospital for about a week.

“Fancy seeing you here,” Woohyun says with a sigh, when he turns on his living room light and Hoya’s just _there_ , “It’s been a while.” 

Hoya doesn’t respond with a terribly executed joke like Woohyun has come to expect and instead just looks at him. 

Woohyun isn’t sure what’s going on here, so he pulls out his phone to appear less self-conscious than he feels and asks, “Can I help you? Are you just blinded by my beauty?” 

The silence drags on, Hoya still looking at him, for so long that Woohyun has to stare at his phone, flicking between various apps just to appear busy. 

“I _hit_ you,” Hoya finally blurts with the strangest look on his face. The best word he can think of to describe it is distressed, but Woohyun can’t figure out _why_ Hoya would be distressed.

“I’m well aware,” Woohyun says dryly. The only thing stopping him making a sarcastic comment about how long ago it was is that look. 

“You did something I didn’t like and I _hit_ you. Who _does_ that?”  

Woohyun puts down his phone and really looks at Hoya. He’s not sure what it is that he finds, but he knows it’s unusual, “I’m not sure I’d put it that way exactly, it’s not like I made something for dinner you didn’t like. I got Myungsoo kidnapped.” 

“No you didn’t,” Hoya says. It seems to be a knee jerk reaction for all of them at this point, denying it straight away any time Woohyun blames himself for the incident. He’ll never admit it but it’s nice. Maybe one day soon he’ll start to believe them. 

“And even if you _did,”_ Hoya says, clearly reading his mind, “That was no excuse to hit you.” 

“You’ve already apologised,” Woohyun points out because to his credit Hoya did apologise, pretty much the day after.  

“If my knee jerk reaction when something doesn’t go my way is to lash out,” Hoya says, staring over Woohyun’s shoulder in a way that’s slightly disconcerting, “If that’s my natural reaction, how am I any better than,” he pauses before continuing, “better than the assholes we take down.” 

Hoya is being melodramatic, it’s shades of that conversation they had back during the Paradise job all over again. Hoya’s something of a martyr, Woohyun has come to notice, underneath all his bluster and fake confidence. He takes so, so much onto himself, expects so much of himself. He expects to be more than human, feels that he’s failed when he is human. 

It’s like he was a bad person for so long, did things he clearly regrets, that he thinks he can’t make mistakes anymore. Woohyun honestly doesn’t know how Myungsoo _deals_ with it, is glad he doesn’t have to.

Woohyun could reassure Hoya there’s a difference but he thinks Hoya must already know that.  Instead he asks softly, “Howon, what’s this about.”

Hoya looks down at his hands for a long time, so long that Woohyun thinks he’s not going to get an answer. Half expects to blink and for Hoya to be gone. Eventually, Hoya says, “It’s already my job to solve problems with my fists, I don’t want to be the kind of abusive asshole that solves disagreements in my personal life with my fists.”

“The fact that you’re very aware you don’t want to become that person means that you probably won’t,” Woohyun points out.

There’s something ironic, almost annoying, about the fact that Woohyun is having to reassure Hoya when he was the one that was hit.

He understands though, probably more than Hoya thinks he does. 

Hoya properly looks at him for the first time since this conversation started, “You’re my teammate and my friend, and I punched you. How do you forgive that?”

“I’ve forgiven you already,” Woohyun says, because he has. It took him a little while, but then he remembered being seventeen and punching Kibum for a mistake he made that almost cost a life. He gets it, understands why irrationality clouds a person’s judgement when it comes to someone they love (even if it’s been a long time since he’s had someone he cares about a fraction as much as Hoya and Myungsoo care about each other - he can only imagine how much _worse_ it makes it), “This isn’t about me forgiving you. This is about you forgiving yourself.”

“I’m not sure I can,” Hoya says. Melodramatic asshole.

“It was one punch, it barely did any damage, I’m fine,” Woohyun rolls his eyes. Not to downplay how much it hurt, but he’s seen Hoya throw a punch. Seen Hoya break jaws and knock people out, he is very aware that Hoya pulled that punch, “So please don’t make it into a bigger deal than it is and get the fuck over yourself.”

Of course it was a big deal, but it’s not the end of the world. 

Hoya looks at him strangely, in a way that Woohyun can’t really describe, before he smiles. It’s not a terribly genuine smile, but it’s a smile, “Thank you.”

“No worries,” Woohyun says. He doesn’t want Hoya to beat himself up over this, doesn’t want him to suffer, of course he doesn’t, because like Hoya has pointed out they’re friends. 

Still, it’s not his obligation to make Hoya feel better about this, especially when he seems so determined to hang onto the guilt. 

He just hopes, whatever it is Hoya is holding onto, that makes him hold himself to these impossible standards, he lets go of it eventually (because honestly the guilt is kind of exhausting to deal with).

 

 

 

**00:189:12**

 

Watching Myungsoo sitting in his hospital bed, now free from most of the machinery that had been hooked up to him during his ICU stint, it’s almost possible to forget how serious things had been.

Sure, it’s impossible to miss the fact they’re in a hospital ward with the way the lights never really go out at night, or the soft chatter of nurses and staff continually keeping the silence at bay, but now you could almost fool yourself into thinking Myungsoo was in here for a broken leg, or something else minor. 

The huge bald patch Myungsoo is sporting is the only physical indication to remind them how close they came to losing Myungsoo. It would look funny, if it didn’t serve as a stark reminder that only days ago there was a drain stitched in there, snaking out of his skull in a way that looked wholly unnatural. 

Everyone has different ways of dealing with it. Hoya acts like he doesn’t notice it (which he might not considering his previous occupation means he's probably seen worse and all). Sungyeol and Dongwoo glance at it occasionally but don’t make a big deal out of it whilst Woohyun only remarks on it in the course of tasteless jokes.  

The fact that Sungjong seems to be taking it hardest of all is the most surprising thing to Sunggyu. As he sits in the corner of the room, away from Myungsoo’s bed pretending to work, he observes as Sungjong and Woohyun are sitting in chairs either side of the bed conversing quietly. Hoya is sitting on the bottom of the bed but Sunggyu is half convinced that he’s sleeping with his eyes open. 

When Myungsoo laughs about something so hard that Hoya jolts, it becomes pretty obvious that’s exactly what he was doing. There’s a whole song and dance as Myungsoo tries to convince Hoya to go get some sleep and Hoya refuses and everyone else in the room pretends not to notice how grossly domestic they’re being. It’s not a new thing, but since Myungsoo has been in hospital they’ve dropped all pretenses.   

Eventually to everyone’s relief they compromise and Hoya curls up on the bottom of Myungsoo’s bed and by all appearances falls straight asleep (which begs belief).

That’s not what catches Sunggyu’s eye though, that’s just another day in the weird world of co-dependent assassins. What is concerning is in the process of shuffling around so Hoya can fit, Myungsoo’ has turned his head. It shouldn’t be a big deal but when Sungjong’s spots the bald patch the blood drains from his face. 

Sunggyu can’t work out why Sungjong seems to be taking this harder than anyone else, but that’s not his concern right now. He’s thinking he needs to intervene, stop pretending to be working because Sungjong looks like he’s about to pass out.  

Before he can do anything Woohyun speaks up. 

Woohyun has been through so much over the course of this job because of the actions of his team, he’d be justified in needing time or space. He hasn’t though, instead in the days since Myungsoo has woken up Woohyun has taken it upon himself to help Sunggyu keep everything together.  

Sunggyu had no intentions to ask Woohyun, especially after Woohyun’s attempt at intervention, but he’s still been there offering his assistance. Whilst Sunggyu, with the assistance of Dongwoo, has been working to find new safe houses and make sure SM is suitably occupied elsewhere Woohyun has taken on the arguably much harder job of trying to keep the team as sane and healthy as possible.  

“So,” Woohyun is saying to Myungsoo, reaching over to run his fingers through his fringe, “Are you thinking undercut or full shave?” 

“What?” Myungsoo asks sounding as confused as Sunggyu feels.  

“Your hair,” Woohyun says, yanking on a strand in his reach before leaning back, “What are you going to do about the bald patch?”

“Oh,” Myungsoo says, reaching up to gently prod at it, though luckily Woohyun manages to catch his hand before he does. The wound has healed enough for the bandage to come off but Sunggyu’s still reasonably sure Myungsoo shouldn’t be poking at it, “You mean I can’t just let it grow?” 

“Well you can, but where’s the fun in that?” Woohyun asks playfully. It’s an interesting tactic, make a joke of the elephant in the room. Sunggyu’s not sure if it’s going to work. 

“I’m not sure I’d be able to rock the totally shaved look,” Myungsoo says dryly. 

“Because the bald patch is much easier to pull off,” Sunggyu can’t help adding in, looking up from his work. Myungsoo sticks his tongue out at him.

“You could go for the undercut and match Hoya,” Woohyun says, gesturing towards his sleeping form.

“No,” Sunggyu says immediately, “I can put up with a lot of things but I draw the line at matching couple haircuts.” 

He’s only half joking. Myungsoo laughs though, and even Sungjong snorts so he must be lightening up a little.

“I could shave a pattern into it,” Myungsoo says perking up slightly, “Like a love heart or something.”

“No,” Hoya says shocking everyone in the room into silence, “Don’t you dare.”

“You’re meant to be sleeping,” Myungsoo chides him with no heat behind it. 

“I would, if you all shut up,” Hoya groans, hiding his face in Myungsoo’s knee.

Sunggyu tries not to laugh as he goes back to his work, and the other three continue their conversation in lowered voices. Sungjong looks less like he’s going to pass out though so Sunggyu adds another thing to his mental list of things he owes Woohyun for.

It’s a long list.

 

 

 

 

 

♙♙♙

THE MAN IN LOVE JOB : APRIL 2013

 

 

Woohyun is on his way down to check the mail of this stupid apartment’s letter box when he’s waylaid by the middle-aged woman that lives a couple of floors above their aliases. 

“Jun,” She says seriously, stepping in between Woohyun and the lift, “We need to talk.”

“Sure,” Woohyun says, flashing her his most disarming smile, “What can I do for you?”

Surprisingly enough that smile does nothing to stop her frowning at him, “Jun, your husband is a lovely young man,”

“I agree,” Woohyun cuts her off. That makes her glower harder. Which means this is about Myungsoo.

“David is a lovely young man, and I’ve just, I cannot believe you would hurt him this way,” She says, crossing her arms over her chest.

 

Woohyun has absolutely no clue what this could possibly be about, besides apparently Myungsoo.

“I don’t know what-” he starts to say, but she steamrolls right over him.

“And with that security guard of all people, I mean really. He’s so _short_.” Woohyun would laugh at that description of -presumably- Hoya, but he’s got more important things to worry about now that he thinks he knows what she’s talking about.  

Woohyun doesn’t wear his comms when he’s just wandering around the complex to keep his cover. He has it in his pocket of course, but he can’t put it in whilst the well-meaning neighbour is standing in front of him so he can’t expect Sungjong or Hoya to come and save him. 

Instead he tells her, “I really have no clue what you’re talking about,” edging around her to the elevator.

“Adultery is a sin, Jun,” she tells him as he slips into the elevator.

 “It is, good thing I’m not sinning,” he tells her with his best smile, repeatedly pressing the button to close the door despite the fact he knows that won’t speed up the process. 

Once the door is shut he lets out a sigh of relief as he puts his comms in, before deciding he should probably make a little detour by the security office.

“Woohyun?” Hoya asks when Woohyun slams and locks the door behind him, “What are you doing?”

“Well,” Woohyun says, stalking into the room and dropping into the spare chair next to Hoya, “It seems that we’ve been pretty shit at being subtle.”

A brief look of alarm flashes across Hoya’s face, before it settles into that focused expression of his, “With what?” 

“Pretending not to know each other,” Woohyun says. Normally he would blame Myungsoo when it comes to Hoya but he kind of has very explicit proof it’s kind of his fault this time. Actually it’s probably Hoya’s fault, whilst he’s a competent grifter he isn’t on the same level as Myungsoo and most certainly not as good as Woohyun. 

“Oh,” Hoya says chewing his lip, “Is it bad? Do we need to wake Sunggyu?” 

Sunggyu had been on monitoring duty last night and is probably exhausted. Woohyun doesn’t think it’s that bad, “No, I don’t think so. Because she doesn’t think we’re conspiring to do anything except hide the fact that we’re making the beast with two backs”  

Hoya looks at him like he thinks Woohyun has gone crazy, “They think _we’re_ having an affair? Like you and I?” he asks incredulously. Woohyun doesn’t blame him. 

“Well I mean, maybe not all of them,” Woohyun says thoughtfully, “But I was just harassed by that curly-haired woman from the second floor demanding to know how could I cheat on my lovely husband with someone as cliche as the security guard.” Woohyun would have laughed at the absurdity of the whole situation if he wasn’t so busy trying to figure out how to make sure the plan didn’t fall down around their ears.  

“What did you tell her?” Hoya asks absent-mindedly. 

“I said I had no idea what she was talking about,” Woohyun says, unfortunately it’s also the reaction someone having an affair would probably have, “I don’t think she believed me.”

“That’s, not good,” Hoya says slowly as if he’s processing it, “But it’s not as bad as it could be.”

“What do you _mean_ it’s not as bad as it could be,” Dongwoo, who is currently on comms monitoring duty, asks skeptically, “They know you know each other.”

“Well, they don’t know we knew each other before,” Woohyun says, before Hoya finishes his thought,

“And, they’ve just invented a perfect, believable cover story for us to interact without raising suspicion,” Hoya finishes with a grin that’s a little unsettling if Woohyun’s being honest. 

“So you’re going to pretend to be having an affair?” Dongwoo asks slowly, like the whole thing is ridiculous. 

“We don’t really need to pretend anything,” Woohyun says, “Since the buildings gossip network has probably done that whether we want it to or not.” 

“But Woohyun,” Hoya says, getting up from his chair, “Where’s the fun in that?”

“No,” Woohyun says, rolling his chair slowly away from Hoya, “I don’t actually know what you’re thinking but no.” 

“If we’re going to go with this we need to commit to it,” Hoya says, stalking towards him. 

Woohyun’s eyes widen as his chair hits something (probably the wall) and stops, “Now Hoya,” he says trying to project calm to hide the fact he’s a little concerned about what Hoya is planning, “Let’s not do anything rash.” 

“I’m not being rash,” Hoya says, reaching out and physically ripping the top button off Woohyun’s shirt.  

Woohyun has honestly never been more frightened of Hoya in his life, because the only word he can use to describe the look in his eyes right now is sadistic.

He’s suddenly very glad he didn’t know Hoya when he was a crazy murderous assassin for hire, despite how overdramatic that seems. 

“What the fuck are you doing?” He manages to ask, trying to rip himself out of Hoya’s grasp and failing. 

“Making you look sex mussed,” Hoya mutters as he rips an honest to god hole in Woohyun’s sleeve

“What the fuck kind of sex are you having?” Woohyun doesn’t actually want to know the answer to that, so he rushes to add, “I look like I’ve been mugged!”

“You’ve clearly never been mugged by anyone with half a brain if this is what you looked like afterwards,” Hoya retorts as he reaches out to ruffle at Woohyun’s hair so hard he’s probably going to develop a headache. 

“Yeah, well what are you going to do next? Punch me in the neck to make it look like a hickey?” Woohyun scoffs. The way Hoya eyes him appraisingly makes him shrink back a bit.

 “I mean it’d probably be easier to bite you,” He says, making sure to flash his canines at Woohyun, still crowding above him.

Woohyun cringes.

“I don’t want to know,” Sungjong’s voice comes from somewhere beside them. Woohyun turns to find just his head sticking out of the air vents, “I’m not going to ask.”

“Don’t act like you haven’t been listening in on the comms the entire time,” Hoya scoffs lobbing an apple at Sungjong’s head. 

Sungjong pulls his head back into the vent, sticking it back out so he can poke his tongue out at Hoya once the apple has gone sailing past, hitting the wall with a loud thump.  

“If you’re done terrorising Woohyun for fun,” Sungjong says dryly to Hoya (which Woohyun resents - he’s not being terrorised he’s holding his own ground thank you very much), “I have something for you.”

Hoya moves over to where Sungjong is, expertly catching the bits and pieces Sungjong drops down to him. They’re personal possessions of their mark, watches, and jewelry and Woohyun’s pretty sure he sees a key though he doesn’t actually know what it’s a key for. 

“Oh, and Myungsoo is on his way back, so you should probably get upstairs so you’re ready for this fucking kitten,” Sungjong says face twisting in displeasure. 

Woohyun’s surprised he doesn’t bitch any further, because he’s been complaining about having to steal their mark’s kitten for days, because his skills deserve better than this (honestly Woohyun’s almost convinced he’s just fed up of all the cat burglar jokes that Hoya has been making - Woohyun knows he is).

“Alright,” Woohyun says, looking at Hoya calculatingly.

 

He makes sure to get his own back at Hoya first though. Just in case anyone comes into the security office.

 

 

 

♝♝♝ 

Sungyeol has done a lot of stupid things in his life, a lot of things he regrets. For a long time, he’d honestly thought he could never top the stupidity of his whole SM experience. Kind of ironic he thinks, that SM is what triggered the thing that managed to do just that.

SM triggered it, but he has no one to blame but himself for the fucking awful way he treated Woohyun during the One Great Step job. 

The thing about Woohyun is that Sungyeol didn’t even need to apologise with words and he was forgiven. The thing about Sungyeol is the guilt is eating him up inside. It’s been weeks, Myungsoo is out of hospital and puttering about as if nothing has happened. The only signs anything did happen is the patch on his head and the fact he’s not as strong or fast with his words as he used to be, side effects that should all disappear on their own. 

What probably won’t disappear on its own is the guilt, is the slight awkwardness between Sungyeol and Woohyun as if Woohyun isn’t sure how to act around Sungyeol anymore. Sungyeol doesn’t blame him, if the situation was reversed he would want nothing to do with Woohyun (the situation would never be reversed).

It’s been so long, that Sungyeol feels like he’s passed the point where he could apologise and have it not be awkward. It’s going to keep being awkward until Sungyeol apologises though, he just doesn’t know how to bring it up. 

“I don’t understand why you’re thinking so hard about this,” Myungsoo tells him with a sigh, interrupting his thoughts, “You go up to him say ‘sorry for being such a fucking dickfaced wang I can’t help it I was born this stupid’ simple as that.”

“You are quite literally the least helpful person on the planet,” Sungyeol tells him matter-of-factly.

“You want to throw something at me but you can’t because I’m _injured,”_ Myungsoo crows in delight. 

“Only your head, so watch your feet,” Sungyeol tells him with a glare. 

“I think you’re the one injured in the head,” Myungsoo says with a long-suffering sigh, kicking his legs against the arm of the couch he’s sprawled across. Sungyeol is sitting on the floor, back to the couch, laptop on the coffee table. He was meant to be doing research for Sunggyu but it’s long been abandoned.

“Who’s injured in the head?” Woohyun says, having been summoned by the fact Sungyeol really doesn’t want to see him.

“Sungyeol,” Myungsoo says solemnly.

Usually, Woohyun would make a joke about how he always thought that was obvious. He doesn’t this time, just lightly scolds Myungsoo for being mean, being very careful to look at Sungyeol so it doesn’t seem like he’s avoiding him without _looking_ at Sungyeol.

It’s that awkwardness that makes Sungyeol turn around to face Woohyun and blurt out, “I’m so fucking sorry.”

Woohyun freezes, slowly looking at Sungyeol. “What did you do? Should I be worried about sleeping in my own bed tonight,” he says with a forced casualness that’s so awkward it hurts.

“No, look I’m really sorry about how much of a dick I was,” Sungyeol says, looking at Myungsoo because he can’t look at Woohyun anymore. Myungsoo shoots him an encouraging smile.

The silence drags on so long that Sungyeol is considering burrowing underneath the couch and never coming out, before finally Woohyun says, “I, I know Sungyeol.”

“I’m not going to explain myself,” Sungyeol says, because explaining himself is going to sound like he’s making excuses and there is no excuse that could even possible hope to hold up, “Just, I was so out of line and nothing is going to fix that and I’m sorry.” 

“I know, I accept your apology Sungyeol,” Woohyun says, still awkwardly hovering in the doorway.

Sungyeol hums out a response. At least Woohyun hadn’t said he was forgiven because there’s probably no forgiving what he did. He doesn’t know if Woohyun is ever going to trust him again.

Sungyeol’s so caught up in his moping that he doesn’t notice Woohyun has approached him until he sits down next to him so their shoulders and brushing, “Sungyeol, you didn’t need to apologise with words. You’ve been apologising for weeks.”

Sungyeol flushes, because whilst he’s not stupid enough to think Woohyun hasn’t noticed the little things Sungyeol has been doing to make amends he didn’t think Woohyun would actually bring it up in conversation.  

“Sometimes you’ve got to say the words though,” Myungsoo chimes lazily from behind him.

“You know, Sungyeol is the second person to apologise to me recently, did you have anything to do with these apologies?” Woohyun asks Myungsoo suspiciously. Sungyeol would feel offended that Woohyun thinks he’s not capable of apologies, but he’s aware of his abysmal track record when they do matter. 

“Hoya’s was inevitable, once it really sunk in what he did,” Myungsoo says sagely, before adding quietly, “It brought up some bad memories for him. Sungyeol’s just finally decided to be a decent human being.”

Sungyeol thinks he’s well justified in the way he slaps Myungsoo’s ankle. 

“I accept that you’re sorry,” Woohyun says slowly, once Myungsoo has stopped complaining, “and for what it’s worth I should have explained everything to you, so some of this is on me.” 

“None of this is on you,” Sungyeol says, desperate to make sure Woohyun doesn’t actually believe this, “I’m not sorry I was suspicious to begin with, because that’s how I’m still alive. I’m sorry I held onto that suspicion instead of paying attention to everything I knew about you over the years.” 

“Okay,” Woohyun nods with a little smile, “Apology accepted.”

“See, easy,” Myungsoo says, reaching down to ruffle Sungyeol’s hair. Sungyeol twists his head and bares his teeth at him. Myungsoo just laughs.  

“You know,” Woohyun says slowly, drawing both of their attention back to him, “You were right to be suspicious of me, because I didn’t want you to know about Kibum, and that was a mistake. That was selfish, but it’s not a time in my life I’m proud of.”

“You don’t owe us an explanation,” Sungyeol tells Woohyun. He doesn’t want to force Woohyun to talk about something he doesn’t want to. After everything the possibility sits uncomfortably with him.

“No, you’re right, I want to tell someone,” Woohyun says, staring unseeing at the screensaver dancing across Sungyeol’s laptop screen. 

Sungyeol and Myungsoo exchange a look, and Myungsoo shrugs, so Sungyeol says, “Only if you’re sure.” 

“My parents were career criminals. Assassins they called themselves, though they weren’t above any sort of job that involved causing pain,” Woohyun says quietly, launching into the story without preamble, “They started using me in their plans when I was a kid. When I was twelve though, my parents decided to ditch me with my aunt in America but by then my childhood was gone. I was kind of jaded, an excellent grifter: I could talk any kid or adult into doing almost anything I wanted them to.” 

Woohyun turns to look at Sungyeol then, “I didn’t know how to be anything other than a criminal. I stole from the other kids, I manipulated teachers into giving me decent grades with fake sob stories. I didn’t like hurting people, but I liked manipulating them you know?” Woohyun explains.

“Yeah,” Myungsoo says softly, because honestly Sungyeol didn’t know. Sungyeol had only ever gone after rich assholes, because well there was no point hacking someone who had nothing. 

“Kibum grew up on the same street as my aunt, he offered me friendship so quickly that I think my aunt must have asked him to. But he was genuinely nice to me when he was cold to the other kids, in the kind of way that made you want to impress him. He was a good kid though, he was the first person to ever show me kindness and like me for me, you know how it is?”

“Yeah,” Myungsoo says again, reaching down to squeeze Woohyun’s shoulder. Sungyeol knows he’s thinking of Hoya, knows the gist of that story so well.

“He was the first person that showed me kindness and I dragged him into a life of crime. He caught me lying to a teacher to increase my grades, asked me to show him and I did. And we got better and did worse until my parents wanted me back, when I turned eighteen and I was useful to them again.”

“How did Kibum end up with SM?” Sungyeol prods gently, knowing Woohyun needs the reminder so he doesn’t dwell on his family. 

 “They caught him and a friend of his doing something highly illegal, basically told them they could join them or go to jail.” Woohyun whispers, “The way Kibum tells is, Taemin would have done terribly in jail at the time, so they only had one choice. But, if I hadn’t dragged him _into_ this life, he wouldn’t have ended up with SM. Do you see now why I…?” Woohyun trails off, looking all the world like he’s going to cry. 

“Yes,” Sungyeol says pulling Woohyun into his side for a hug, “I do, and I’m sorry for doubting you.”

He’s not going to tell Woohyun it’s not his fault, because if Woohyun believes it’s his fault nothing Sungyeol says will change that (it’s not his fault - giving someone the tools to do something doesn’t make your responsible for their decisions).

“It’s okay, I forgive you,” Woohyun says again, hiding his face in Sungyeol’s chest.

Strangely enough as Myungsoo slips from the couch to hug Woohyun from the other side, it doesn’t make Sungyeol feel any better.

 

 

  

♙♙♙

POST BACK JOB : AUGUST 2014

  

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that something is up with Myungsoo. He’s been quiet, more withdrawn than usual, and whilst it would be all too easy to write that down to worry over Hoya’s injury, Woohyun isn’t so sure, the signs had been there before the last job and Hoya’s injury.  

Myungsoo is trying his best to hide whatever it is he’s worrying about. Woohyun has no idea what. At first he’d thought it was that whole mess with Sungyeol, but things have only gotten worse with Myungsoo recently, whilst the Sungyeol situation appears to be getting better if the way Sungjong has stopped perpetually scowling is anything to go by.

 Despite what can only be Myungsoo’s best efforts to hide his worry, it seeps through sometimes. It’s obvious in the way he zones out sometimes, staring more often than not at his hands, though sometimes down at his lap. It shows in the way he laughs slightly less, and when he does there’s an awkward forced feeling behind it. 

Woohyun wonders if Hoya knows or maybe Sungyeol. Judging by the way they watch Myungsoo as confused as Woohyun feels he assumes they don’t. 

The fact that Myungsoo hasn’t told anyone anything is what worries Woohyun most, but it’s not been affecting his ability to do his job so Woohyun figures he’ll tell someone what’s up eventually or get over it.

He never expected to be that someone. Hoya or Sungyeol were the obvious choices, Dongwoo if it’s something Myungsoo doesn’t want those two to know.  

Woohyun is sitting on the couch in the study, trying to brainstorm some alias ideas for a side job that Sunggyu has given him when Sungyeol when Myungsoo comes into the room. 

Woohyun doesn’t bother giving him more than a cursory glance because it’s fairly common for people to come in and out in the quest for books. 

It’s only when Myungsoo shuts the door that he looks up, watching curiously as Myungsoo seems to fumble with the lock, hissing in frustration before finally getting it. 

Woohyun pretends he hasn’t been watching when Myungsoo turns back around to save him the embarrassment, and so is a little surprised when Myungsoo physically tries to lift his right arm up. His grip is not particularly strong but Woohyun lifts his arm, letting Myungsoo curl into his side. 

“Everything okay?” Woohyun asks casually, keeping his eyes on his phone to give Myungsoo the illusion of space. 

“No,” Myungsoo says, but doesn’t offer anything else. Woohyun doesn’t push him, just scrolls through his phone for twenty minutes before Myungsoo finally speaks up again, “Woohyun?” 

“Yeah,” Woohyun puts his phone down and looks at Myungsoo. 

“I’m scared,” Myungsoo says. 

Woohyun’s stomach drops. He’d had a number of predictions of what Myungsoo might say, but that hadn’t even crossed his mind.  

“Why are you scared?” Woohyun asks, keeping his voice as steady as possible. 

“I think, I think I’m, I’m,” Myungsoo stumbles over his words, probably because he’s stressed himself.  

Stressed himself out immensely because he tries one more time, “I think I have, I have…” and when he stumbles again he bursts into tears.

“Myungsoo,” Woohyun says in concern, pulling Myungsoo so they’re facing each other. To his surprise Myungsoo doesn’t fight him, “Please, tell me what’s wrong.” 

“Broken,” Myungsoo manages to choke up, trying to curl in on himself. 

“What’s broken?” Woohyun asks, pulling Myungsoo into a proper hug. Unfortunately he thinks he knows the answer, “You think you’re broken?” 

“Yes,” Myungsoo says, hiding his face in Woohyun’s neck, still sobbing so hard he’s shaking. 

“Myungsoo, breathe,” Woohyun says, rubbing circles on his back, “Calm down, and tell me why you think you’re broken.” 

Of course Myungsoo isn’t broken, physically he looks fine (someone on the team would have noticed a physical injury - by necessity they’ve gotten pretty good at noticing when someone’s trying to hide an injury). Woohyun isn’t sure how he is mentally, but he’s not _broken._  

It takes another twenty minutes for Myungsoo to calm down enough to form words (Woohyun wonders absently where everyone else is - why no one has come looking for them) but eventually his body stops shaking and his breathing sounds more even.

Before Woohyun gets a chance to prompt him again, Myungsoo is back under his arm and speaking slowly like he’s putting effort into every word, “I, I can’t _talk,_ the words, the words don’t come,” He says, quietly. Woohyun isn’t sure if he means he can’t vocalise the words or he can’t think of the words. 

He’s not sure which is worse. 

Myungsoo’s not finished though, “And, I keep, my legs, I keep falling, my hands don’t do what, what they should.” 

As he speaks, he curls smaller into Woohyun’s side, like he’s scared. Maybe everything is scarier now he’s said it out loud or maybe he thinks Woohyun won’t believe him.

Woohyun does believe him, because looking back on the last few months he sees it. Myungsoo being clumsier than usual, struggling with words, _saying_ less than he usually does. Things they’ve laughed at him for, have been really stressing him out.

 “How long?” Woohyun asks him even though he thinks knows the answers.

“Since the Last Romeo job,” Myungsoo says, confirming his suspicions. 

“Myungsoo it’s been two months, why didn’t you tell anyone?” Woohyun asks in concern, trying not to sound accusatory now that Myungsoo is opening up to him. 

“Because I thought I was just, I was, making it up? Worrying,” Myungsoo says, which is a reasonable assumption to make, especially considering how stressed everyone had been around that time, “And then, Howon is injured I don’t, I don’t want to worry him. And then Yeol would, tell and Sungjong hates me, and and..” 

“Hey, Sungjong doesn’t hate you,” Woohyun says, running his fingers through Myungsoo’s hair, “And let me guess, you didn’t want Sunggyu to think you’re a burden to the team and you didn’t want to worry Dongwoo.” 

“Yes,” Myungsoo says. 

“You need to go see a doctor or something, if you’re that worried, you know that, right?” Woohyun asks him eventually. 

He thinks Myungsoo wants someone to force him to do it, because he’s come to Woohyun. If he doesn’t, Woohyun’s going to force him anyway. 

“I don’t…” Myungsoo trails off. Woohyun isn’t sure if he’s gotten stuck or he doesn’t have an argument. 

“Myungsoo, if you’re scared or worried about it, please go see someone,” Woohyun says imploringly, “Go see someone or tell Hoya.”  

“No,” Myungsoo says with such panic that Woohyun has to wonder if there’s more to not wanting to tell Hoya than simply not worrying him (it’s none of his business).

He’s not trying to emotionally blackmail Myungsoo by threatening to tell Hoya, it’s more about the fact he’s the only one with passable medical knowledge amongst them, and if Myungsoo won’t go to a doctor that’s the next best thing “Please.” 

“What if I’m, if I’m making it up it,” Myungsoo whispers.

“You’re not imagining your symptoms Myungsoo,” Woohyun says. 

Myungsoo whips his head around faster than Woohyun thought possible to look at him, “You’ve noticed?” 

Woohyun isn’t sure if this is going to make Myungsoo feel better or worse, but the only thing he can do is be honest so he nods, “Yes. It might be nothing serious, just a by-product of stress but we’d both feel better if you went.” 

Myungsoo is quiet, like he’s thinking it over before he says, “And you won’t tell Hoya?”

“I won’t tell Hoya,” Woohyun confirms.

“And you’ll come with me?” He asks, surprisingly Woohyun with the way he grabs his wrist.

“Of course I’ll come with you,” Woohyun says, because he’s not going to let Myungsoo stress over this alone.

“Okay,” Myungsoo says with a little determined nod, “Doctor it is.”

Woohyun just prays it really is stress and nothing too serious, they’ve already been through enough angst.

 

 

 

♘♘♘

POST LAST ROMEO : JULY 2013

 

“Where is Woohyun?” Sunggyu all but demands as he comes into the room where the rest of the team (minus Hoya’s who is with his physiotherapist and the apparently missing Woohyun). The four of them look at each other, seeing as no one seems to know the answer before Dongwoo brightens.

“Oh! I remember he said he was going to physio with Hoya? I think?” Dongwoo says words trailing off in confidence as he speaks as if that doesn’t make much sense to him. 

“Why?” Sunggyu asks, eyebrow raised.

 Dongwoo shrugs, but Sungyeol seems to know the answer if the way he sits up straighter is any indication. Of course Sungyeol knows, “I think he’s enjoying flirting with Hoya’s physio.” 

“Her name is Jaekyung and she was my physio first,” Myungsoo says with a melodramatic pout like the needy attention starved kid he is. 

Sungyeol laughs, launching himself into Myungsoo’s lap and pinches his cheeks, “Aww babe, are you feeling left out? Because I’m sure you’ll always be her favourite, you were much more broken than Hoya,”

Sungjong looks away. 

“Wait, Hoya’s physiotherapist is the same one as Myungsoo’s? From Seoul?” Dongwoo asks curiously. Clearly he hasn’t been paying attention.

“How else did you think we just happened to know a physiotherapist in London?” Sungjong asks to distract himself.

“Kei?” Dongwoo says, though the way he frowns indicates that he thinks that’s probably unlikely, since Kei had only been in London at their request. 

“I think she moved from Seoul because of SM,” Myungsoo says quietly. He’s probably feeling guilty about it because Myungsoo is stupid. 

Before he goes down that stupid guilt path he’s so fond of Sunggyu jumps in, “So is Woohyun flirting with Jaekyung for fun or…?”

 “You know, I’m actually not sure,” Myungsoo says, tapping a finger against his lower lip in thought, “Like he’s not being that over the top greasy thing he does when he’s trying to seduce marks but I don’t know if he’s actually serious.”

“Has anyone ever seen Woohyun romantically interested in anyone though?” Sungyeol asks, sounding genuinely curious, from where he’s still sitting on Myungsoo. Sungjong fights the urge to roll his eyes.  

“I thought he did at one point,” surprisingly enough it’s Myungsoo that offers that, “But then, remember when he had that thing with Kibum earlier this year? And he treated him kind of the same way so maybe that's just Woohyun,”

“That doesn’t mean he _doesn’t_ ,” Sungyeol points out, because clearly he enjoys baiting Myungsoo’s crazy possessive side and _has_ a death wish, “It could mean he has a thing with Kibum or had a thing or is secretly in love with him.” 

“No, I don’t think so,” Myungsoo shakes his head, “I think it’s more…” Then he stops himself, as if he’s realised he’s speaking out loud, “No, never mind.”

“You can’t tease us with juicy information like that and just say never mind,” Sungyeol says, poking Myungsoo in the side. Myungsoo squirms so hard trying to get away from Sungyeol that he falls off the couch, taking Sungyeol with him.

“I don’t know anything, I’m just speculating,” Myungsoo says not making any moved to get up off the floor, instead just lying sprawled on top of Sungyeol. Sungjong scoffs. 

“It took Woohyun like three years to open up to us properly,” Dongwoo says, that look he wears when he’s not sure if he’s gossiping about someone or just sharing concern flitting across his face, “I don’t think he has ever known someone even close to long enough to feel comfortable enough to open up to them?” 

“You don’t have to emotionally open up to someone to sleep with them Dongwoo,” Sunggyu says dryly, in the tone that means they’ve had this discussion before. 

“Yes but Sungyeol specified romantically not sexually,” Dongwoo points out serenely. 

“Woohyun doesn’t really seem the casual sex type though,” Myungsoo says as if it’s something he’s put a great deal of thought into. Sungjong hopes he hasn’t considered his sex life, though he wouldn’t put it past Myungsoo.

 “I refuse to believe Woohyun hasn’t slept with someone in like four years though,” Sungyeol says.

“Well those weird dreams he was having about all of us might say otherwise,” Sunggyu points out dryly. God, Sungjong would really rather _not_ talk about that ever again, he’d almost managed to suppress the memory.

“Friends with benefits are also a thing that exist,” Myungsoo says with faux knowledge in his voice, “A very convenient option in my personal option.”

“You could just, ask Woohyun,” Sungjong points out, knowing full well that they’re going to ignore him. 

“Like he would actually tell us,” Sungyeol scoffs, poking Myungsoo in the side again, “Are you ever going to get your fat ass off of me?”

“Hmm, no I don’t think so,” Myungsoo says burying his head into Sungyeol’s shoulder.

“No stalking Woohyun to find out about his sex life,” Sunggyu warns the two idiots on the floor, making sure to specify, “digital or otherwise.” 

“It’s not stalking if you’re trying to find out a specific bit of information,” Sungyeol says haughtily.

“I think you’ll find that is probably the very definition of stalking,” The topic of their conversation says, strolling into the room with Hoya hobbling along behind him. 

“Jaekyung!” Myungsoo finally climbs off Sungyeol (kneeing him in the stomach in the process, Sungjong notices) when he sees her, “Hi,”

“Hi Myungsoo,” she laughs, watching Hoya with hawk eyes as he takes a seat on the couch dumb and dumber had previously occupied, “Looking after yourself?”

“Yeah,” Myungsoo says, looking away from her awkwardly. Sungjong has no clue what grift he’s trying to pull on her acting so skittish, he doesn’t care.

“Well, I’ll see you all around, Myungsoo, Hoya, Woohyun,” She says nodding at the three of them in turn with a extra fond smile at Woohyun, Sungjong notices, “Everyone else.”

“I’ll show you out,” Woohyun says, guiding her from the room.

 “So, how was the session? Good news?” Myungsoo asks Hoya, climbing over Sungyeol to cuddle up in his side. Disgusting.

“Yeah, Woohyun’s actually been really helpful,” Hoya says thoughtfully, “I think he’s trying to pick up tips from her so in the future he might be able to help rehab injuries.”

 “So he’s not trying to sleep with her?” Sungyeol asks curiously, still lying on the ground despite the fact there’s nothing stopping him getting up now.

“He might be, I don’t know,” Hoya shrugs as if he honestly couldn’t care less. 

“You, not knowing something?” Woohyun asks with a shocked gasp, returning to the room, “Is there a delayed onset brain injury here.”

Hoya flips him off over his shoulder. 

“Sunggyu, weren’t you looking for Woohyun for something,” Sungjong prompts, before those two get into one of their dumb little spats.

“Oh, yes,” Sunggyu says, as if he’s forgotten the fact he came storming in here looking for Woohyun like the house was on fire not fifteen minutes ago, “I need your help with something.” 

“Something, can you be any more vague,” Woohyun scoffs.

“Yes I could,” Sunggyu says shortly, walking away and expecting Woohyun to follow.

Surprisingly enough Woohyun sighs, and mutters something under his breath but follows Sunggyu out.

“Well, have fun with your mysterious mission,” Sungyeol calls after them, then once their gone, he sits up like a horrifying thought has occurred to him, “Guys. What if Woohyun is banging Sunggyu?”

 Sungjong’s not the only one that throws something at Sungyeol at that.

“I’m never going to get rid of that mental image,” Myungsoo complains, rubbing at his eyes. 

“I’m pretty sure Sunggyu isn’t sleeping with Woohyun,” Hoya says with a little smile like he knows something, whilst Dongwoo looks like he’s regretting every life choice that lead him into this room.

 

 

 _There is no romance in suffocation_  
_The walls fall down like your expectations_  
_You want to scream and you want to shout_  
_But you've built up steam and you can't let out  
_ _This is pressure_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for how long this took and my motivation/inspiration is nonexistent rn ~~thanks contract renewal speculation~~ so I'm not making any promises when the next chapter will be.
> 
> I definitely hope it'll be less time that this one though and hopefully this chapter isn't a total letdown after the wait.


	21. Chapter Fifteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm kind of really bad at this Hiatus thing but this is the other chapter I've had mostly finished since January and it's exactly a year since I posted the first chapter of You Were Born To Be Real so I figured it was as good a day as any to dump the last chapter I've got finished.
> 
> Anyway shout out to Dena who helped me structure this chapter and who I probably changed for life with some of my spoilers #sorrynotsorry and my gorgeous beta who still found time to edit this chapter despite everything going on right now.

**Chapter Fifteen: Myungsoo**

_I think people are like locks. Really complicated and frustrating, but you can't force them. You have to take time and be fiddly._

 

♟♟♟

 

“Sungjong asked me today if I was having an affair with Sungyeol,” Myungsoo tells Howon conversationally later that evening.

Howon laughs so hard he falls off the bed, “What the fuck?” Howon manages to ask when he’s finished with his hysterical laughter, “Did he really?”

“He did,” Myungsoo says serenely from where he’s sitting crossed legged in the centre of the bed.

“What did you  _say?”_ Howon asks curiously, slinging his arms over the top of the mattress and resting his chin on them but otherwise seeming content to stay on the floor.

“I said, wow Sungjong your detective skills show no end I am currently sleeping with my best friend under Hoya’s nose and he has no idea,” Myungsoo says with a roll of his eyes, “It’s almost insulting he would think you wouldn’t notice.”

Howon laughs again, “It’s more insulting that he’s underestimating me than doubting your fidelity huh?”

“Well obviously I know I’m not cheating on you so that’s bullshit, but the fact he’s doubting you is actually doubting you,” Myungsoo says. Then he frowns, “That didn’t make sense did it.”

“Not in the slightest,” Howon shakes his head, grinning at him, “Not even I could follow that one.”

“Shut up,” Myungsoo uncrosses his legs just so he can kick at Howon’s arms. It doesn’t really work though because Howon has faster reflexes than him and just grabs his foot instead. 

“Can I have my foot back?” Myungsoo asks eventually when Howon just keeps hold of his ankle like the idiot he is.

“I don’t know, it’s a very nice foot as feet go, maybe I’ll keep it,” Howon says appraisingly. Myungsoo tries to kick him but once again fails.

“If you have a foot fetish you’ve never told me about then we’re over, I really will leave you for Sungyeol,” Myungsoo tells him warningly. Howon laughs.

“Not a foot fetish. A you fetish,” Howon tells him very seriously. Myungsoo gags.

“That is disgusting, let go of me I need to go vomit,” Myungsoo says with faux outrage. It’s ridiculous and cheesy and over the top but since that’s about the sweetest thing he’s going to get from Howon unless something dramatic or life threatening happens (and he’s had enough of those kinds of incidents recently he doesn’t want another one) Myungsoo doesn’t hate it as much as he probably should. 

Howon thankfully does let go of him and climbs back on the bed.

“I still can’t believe Sungjong thinks you wouldn’t notice me fucking Sungyeol,” Myungsoo says consideringly as they sit side by side.

“A bit hard to miss, don’t you think?” Howon says thoughtfully, “Although the way you two hang off each other…”

“Aww, don’t be jealous,” Myungsoo says playfully knowing very well that Howon isn’t jealous, “I still hang off you the most,” he says before sitting in Howon’s lap and wrapping his arms around his neck.

“Unfortunately. Where is Sungyeol when he’s needed,” Howon says dryly. 

Myungsoo pushes Howon backwards on the bed so he’s lying on top of him in retaliation (though he very well knows if Howon had wanted to stop him he would have).

“Do you think Sungjong is okay though?” Myungsoo asks Howon when they’ve just been lying there for a while.

“I think, Sungjong is probably slightly heartbroken,” Howon says carefully. He’s got more to say but Myungsoo interrupts him before he can.

 “That’s stupid, they’re both blind and stupid,” Myungsoo says into Howon’s neck.  
  
“Mhmm, doesn’t sound familiar does it,” Howon tells him teasingly. Myungsoo very seriously considers biting Howon in retaliation but then decides that’s not a road he wants to go down.

“I don’t want Sungjong to be upset or heartbroken. It’s a bad feeling,” Myungsoo says quietly. Sungjong may not be overly fond of him but Myungsoo still doesn’t want that.

“Well, you told him you weren’t having an affair with Sungyeol, didn’t you?” Howon asks.

“Of course I did,” Myungsoo scoffs, “I don’t want him running around thinking I'm an adulterer on top of everything else he thinks about me,” Myungsoo says.

“Sungjong will get over it,” Howon says with certainty, “He hasn’t ever not been able to have something he wants, he’s just getting used to it.”

“He could do it without wild accusations,” Myungsoo says with a pout.

Howon pinches his side causing him to yelp, “Excuse me this is coming from you Kim Myungsoo, glass houses and all.”

Myungsoo pushes up on his elbows  and looks down at Howon as judgementally as possible, “I will not respond to these hypocritical accusations.”

Howon hum sounding self satisfied before he looks at Myungsoo, “Why does Sungjong think you’re having an affair with Sungyeol anyway? Your behaviour around him has been the same since the day you met.”

“Not the day we met, I have more restraint than that,” Myungsoo lies through his teeth, pretending not to see the pointed look Howon sends him, “But also, Sungyeol may have fallen asleep in our bed the other day,”

“After all the comments he makes about the frankly physically impossible sex acts he thinks we get up to on it?” Howon asks with a smug look on his face. Myungsoo had kind of felt the same at the time, he makes sure to bring it up to Sungyeol as often as he can.

“And Sungjong thought sleeping meant sex because Sungjong is weird, okay, sure I’ll bite,” Howon says sounding sceptical. Myungsoo might have left some details out. They’re not important.

“I just want Sungyeol to be okay,” Myungsoo whispers, because he’s worried for his friend. Less now than he was a month ago, but still worried, “So like, maybe I let him get away with more than I should.” 

“Well Myungsoo that seems to be quite solid proof that you’re cheating on me. I’m quite offended that it’s with Sungyeol of all people. Dongwoo I could accept, maybe even Woohyun, but Sungyeol is where I draw the line.”

“Shut up,” Myungsoo tells him fondly not sure whether to roll his eyes or kiss him, “I’d never cheat on you.”

“I know,” Howon says sincerely, with the genuine little smile of his. But of course, because he’s Howon he has to add, “And I’d never cheat on you either. I mean, unless Eunji would take me, then all bets are off.”

“Eunji would never stoop that low so I think I’m safe,” Myungsoo says dryly before throwing a pillow at Howon. Just so he knows how serious Myungsoo is. 

 

♔♚♔

MAY 2011

Sunggyu is not too much of a man to admit that he’s in pain. Everything he does is painful, eating, talking, laughing, moving, breathing. Especially breathing.

Apparently that’s what happens when you crack your ribs.   
Still there’s not much Sunggyu can do about it, not if he wants to make sure none of his team learn he’s cracked his ribs, so he takes the painkillers that someone (it could only possibly be Sungyeol) leaves on his bedside table and goes on with life as usual. 

It’s been a little over a week, long enough for Hoya to disappear again, but not long enough for Myungsoo to get out of his funk; currently he’s splayed all over Dongwoo who coddling him like he’s a sick child rather than an adult with co-dependency issued steeped in separation anxiety.  

It’s been a little over a week which means the team is probably expecting some sort of conversation about relocation. So Sunggyu does his usual research, it takes him longer because sitting for extended periods hunched over his desk is practically agony at this point, but no one is any the wiser because he starts early, expecting the problem. Which is how he finds himself sitting in the living room of his apartment, the rest of the team present. “Alright, does anyone have a warrant for arrest in Singapore I need to know about?” he asks, having learned pretty early on it’s important to consider these details before starting any plans.

Which is how he finds himself sitting in the living room of his apartment, the rest of the team present. “Alright, does anyone have a warrant for arrest in Singapore I need to know about?” he asks, having learned pretty early on it’s important to consider these details before starting any plans.

Sungyeol could probably do the research for him, but Sungyeol already does enough and it’s quicker to just ask the team anyway

“I half do.” Sungyeol raises his hand sarcastically.

“How can you have half a warrant for arrest?” Sungjong scoffs from his position sitting cross legged, perfectly balanced on a medicine ball. Sunggyu doesn’t actually know why there’s a medicine ball in his apartment, he’s not sure he wants to know its purpose either, or who it belongs to.“How about I show you?” Sungyeol asks Sungjong threateningly. Sunggyu isn’t entirely sure how that’s meant to be a threat, or why Sungyeol took

“How about I show you?” Sungyeol asks Sungjong threateningly. Sunggyu isn’t entirely sure how that’s meant to be a threat, or why Sungyeol took

“How about I show you?” Sungyeol asks Sungjong threateningly. Sunggyu isn’t entirely sure how that’s meant to be a threat, or why Sungyeol took

“How about I show you?” Sungyeol asks Sungjong threateningly. Sunggyu isn’t entirely sure how that’s meant to be a threat, or why Sungyeol took offence at the very valid question.

Sungyeol and Sungjong’s rivalry doesn’t make a lot of sense at the best of times.

“How are you going to show me?” Sungjong asks calmly, “That doesn’t make sense.”

“I’ll create a warrant for your arrest,” Sungyeol threatens. Sunggyu supposes theoretically Sungyeol could create an arrest warrant in a police database, although surely that would be all kinds of conspicuous. 

“You think I don’t already have warrants out for my arrest,” Sungjong scoffs still managing to stay perfectly balanced despite the familiar bickering.

“I know you do, because someone manages to be known,” Sungyeol says smugly.

“You’re trying to tell us there are no warrants for your arrest anywhere in the world?” Dongwoo asks sounding a cross between sceptical and impressed.

“Your aliases also count,” Myungsoo chimes in cheekily.

“Nope,” Sungyeol says, looking proud of himself.

“That’s probably just because you’ve hacked them all out of existence,” Woohyun rolls his eyes looking less than impressed.

“Or because you sit on your ass all day,” Sungjong shrugs, “It’s really easy to never get caught when you don’t leave the house.”

“Yeah, well you come and do my job then,” Sungyeol says to Sungjong with a scowl that looks a little bit too annoyed for the teasing bickering that’s going on.

“I would,” Sungjong says with what Sunggyu would almost describe as a toss of his head, “But I’m not really into the whole stalking other people to get my kicks thing.”

Woohyun laughs so hard that he tips over sideways, right into Sunggyu’s side.

Sunggyu swears as the ever present pain in his ribs increases tenfold, Sungyeol lunges forwards with an outreached hand, snapping “Be careful you idiot.” Sunggyu supposes he appreciates the sentiment, and how instinctive the movement had been for Sungyeol, but there’s not much Sungyeol could have done. Now all it’s going to do is create more questions.

Which Sunggyu will worry about later when he doesn’t feel like he’s being stabbed with a hot metal poker. 

“What’s wrong?” Woohyun asks, having moved away from Sunggyu with wide eyes, “What did I do?”

“You didn’t do anything,” Sungyeol says with a roll of his eyes, because Sunggyu is in too much pain to talk (and because Sungyeol just likes to get the first word in), “Our intrepid leader just has broken ribs he’s hiding from us all,”

Sunggyu can feel the four sets of accusing eyes burning into him, “Cracked ribs,” he wheezes out in clarification because there is a difference.

“Because that makes so much of a difference,” Sungjong says with a roll of his eyes.

“Well actually it does,” Myungsoo says with a nod of his head, apparently eager to take over as their medical expert when his other half isn’t here, “Since a break implies that it’s broken in two places and then you get floating ribs and that’s all kinds of bad.”

“All kinds of bad?” Woohyun asks curiously.

“Punctured organs kind of bad,” Myungsoo tells him with a knowing nod, “So, a very good thing it’s just cracked.”

“It’s a good thing I have cracked ribs?” Sunggyu can’t help asking incredulously. 

“No, that if you’re going to have mysteriously injured ribs that they’re cracked and not broken,’ Myungsoo tells him like he thinks it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

“How did you crack your ribs anyway?” Dongwoo asks him, frowning in concern. This is precisely the reason he’d been trying to hide it. Dongwoo’s overly concerned nature but also, he can’t exactly tell them that he cracked his ribs because he underestimated an angle of their last job. They barely trust him as it is, he’s not going to give them another reason to question him.

“Fell off a chair,” Sunggyu says dismissively. 

“Fell off a chair,” Sungyeol scoffs. Sunggyu should have known he was never going to keep his mouth shut, “More like fell into the path of a crowbar-wielding maniac, but close enough, eh?”

“How come Sungyeol knows?” Dongwoo asks looking genuinely insulted at the fact Sunggyu might have confided in Sungyeol over him. As if Sungyeol and his big mouth would be his first choice of confidant. 

“I know everything that goes down on a job,” Sungyeol preens, leaning back in his seat with a self satisfied stretch, “It’s kind of my job.”

“He stalks us with security cameras,” Myungsoo says with a little grin, “That’s his job,”

“Yeah, Sungyeol is an expert in stalking, harassing, being an all round creep,” Sungjong says serenely. Sungyeol looks like he’s considering throttling Sungjong with the medicine ball. 

“Did you tell Hoya?” Myungsoo asks, suddenly frowning at the thought. Probably that Hoya had kept it from him, “I assume you did?”

“No,” Sunggyu shakes his head. The less people that know the better, especially Hoya who has a way of constantly being judgemental despite the fact he’s the biggest mess of them all, “I didn’t.”

“You did get medical attention though, right?” Dongwoo asks with a frown. 

“Of course I did,” Sunggyu scoffs. 

“He’s stupid, but clearly not that stupid,” Woohyun says sarcastically, speaking up for the first time. He looks almost mad, though really he has no reason to be mad.

“It’s fine, I saw a doctor, I just have to take painkillers and keep my ribs wrapped and I’ll be fine,” Sunggyu tells them all, wanting to move along. As stupid as it sounds the longer he talks about his ribs the worse they’re hurting.

Apparently his words have the opposite effect because suddenly Myungsoo is up in his space looking slightly hysterical, “You wrapped your ribs? What the fuck?” He yells, voice going bizarrely high as he grabs the edge of Sunggyu’s shirt.

“Myungsoo, what the fuck?” Woohyun yells, sticking a hand out from his place beside Sunggyu and pushing him away.

Myungsoo lunges forward again, but Dongwoo is out of his seat in a second to wrap his arms around him from behind and pulling him away.

“Undo it, right now,” Myungsoo says, note of hysteria in his voice, “Unwrap your ribs.”

“Myungsoo, calm down,” Dongwoo says urgently, pulling him away, “You’re going to hurt him more.”

“He’s hurting himself,” Myungsoo says, struggling against Dongwoo’s hold.

“Myungsoo,” Sungyeol says urgently, “Calm down.”

Myungsoo stops struggling all of a sudden, so much so that Dongwoo stumbles a bit (though doesn’t fall - Sunggyu doesn’t think he’s ever seen Dongwoo fall). He takes a deep breath, “Don’t strap your ribs. Please. Take it off.” He’s calmer now, though the note of urgency is still in his voice.

“Myungsoo, if the doctor strapped them for him he should listen to the doctor,” Woohyun says in that calm voice of his that borders on condescending. Unsurprisingly Myungsoo bristles at that.

“Why shouldn’t Sunggyu strap his ribs?” Dongwoo asks, still with his arms around Myungsoo though know it’s more of a loose hug than anything.

“Strapping your ribs is really bad for them, it prevents your lungs expanding properly and that can give you a lung infection and make you really sick,” Myungsoo says eyes still wide though no fight in his body, “Please, don’t strap them.”

“Is he right?” Woohyun asks, looking at Sunggyu as if he has any idea about any sort of first aid.

“If I thought he was right would I have my ribs strapped right now?” Sunggyu can’t help shooting back sarcastically.

“Please, I’ve lived with Hoya for years and that man looks for fights, you think I don’t know what to do for cracked ribs,” Myungsoo asks with a scoff. He has a point.

“Here, just ask Hoya,” Sungjong interjects like he thinks it’s the most obvious course of action as he pulls his mobile out.

Myungsoo huffs, pouting like he can’t believe that they’d want to check for confirmation of what he’s saying (something none of the rest of them have clearly heard before) with the one person that has medical knowledge.

Hoya answers the phone after a few rings, “Jong? What’s up?” He asks cheerfully, but still an undercurrent of alertness in his voice.

“You’re on speaker. We’re all here,” Sungjong tells him urgently. 

“Who did what?” Hoya asks, immediately suspicious. Like there was anything he would immediately be able to help with halfway across the world (Sunggyu assumes. For all he knows Hoya is living in the apartment block across the street from them). 

“Settle something for us please: do you strap broken ribs or not?” Woohyun says with an eye roll, cutting right to the chase.

There’s a long pause before Hoya sighs, “Who broke their ribs?”

“Cracked! I cracked my ribs,” Sunggyu can’t help interjecting because broken makes it sound so much worse than it is.

“Of course you did,” Hoya says with a laugh.

“Really, because usually Sunggyu wouldn’t go anywhere close enough to the field to be able to break his ribs,” Woohyun mutters under his breath. Sunggyu ignores him.

“No, don’t strap your ribs unless it’s a floating break, which I’m assuming it’s not,” Hoya says either unable to hear Woohyun or ignoring him as well, “Soo should know this.”

“I told them that,” Myungsoo says petulantly. Sunggyu kind of assumed that Myungsoo would be smug about being vindicated, instead of sulky but clearly he was wrong “But no one believed me.”

“Give him some credit,” Hoya says sounding sharp, “I assume he told you it could cause lung infections,”

“Yes,” Dongwoo answers for them all.

“Well the same goes for not breathing deeply or avoiding movement. It’ll hurt but keep breathing normally,  take painkillers if you need it and seriously don’t think about strapping your ribs.”

“He’s had them strapped for a week,” Sungyeol points out because Sungyeol is a rotten tattle tale.

Hoya sighs, sounds less than impressed when he says, “Well unwrap them straight away and give me a call, or preferably go to the hospital, if anyone notices that Sunggyu’s having trouble breathing or getting short of breath quicker than normal. Soo knows what to look out for, ”

 Hoya leaves them with a few more instructions before he begs off and they go back to discussing the next job (after Dongwoo has forced Sunggyu to remove the bandages wrapped around his torso).

That’s the end of that, or so Sunggyu thinks.

Except it’s not because Myungsoo spends the next week looking at Sunggyu like he smothered a truck load of kittens.

Finally, for team unity sake, Sunggyu has to ask him what’s up.

“You didn’t believe me,” Myungsoo says looking past Sunggyu’s shoulder. They both know what he’s talking about

“It’s not that I didn’t believe you,” Sunggyu says carefully, not bothering to pretend he needs clarification “I just, wanted to check.”

“Why? If Sungyeol had told you not to strap your ribs would you have had to check with Hoya? Or is it just because it’s me,” Myungsoo asks looking down at his feet. Sunggyu can’t tell anymore if he’s mad or hurt. Maybe it’s both.

That’s why Sunggyu takes the time to really consider the question instead of simply giving knee-jerk reassurance.

“If Sungyeol had said it I probably wouldn’t have called Hoya,” He concedes, although before he gets the chance to explain himself Myungsoo cuts him off.

“Right, but because it’s me you’ve got to check with Hoya. Even though I’ve been with him so long. Or do you just think I’m too stupid to have picked anything up over the years,” Myungsoo asks, looking away, over at the bookcase. Sunggyu gets the distinct impression he’s fighting back tears though he can’t be that upset over this, can he?

“I don’t think you’re stupid,” Sunggyu says. He gets the feeling that this is not at all what Myungsoo is really upset about, but he’s not going to bring up codependency issues right now. That’s not something he ever wants to deal with, “I wouldn’t take Hoya on his word about hacking something, would verify a suggestion from Sungjong about grifting, it’s not that you’re stupid it’s that you need the right tools for the right job.”

“But you’d take Sungyeol at his word about injuries?” Myungsoo scoffs, “But you have to call Hoya to verify mine, even though arguably me getting first hand experience from Hoya should qualify me more than Sungyeol reading about it on the internet,”

“I’d ask Sungyeol where he got the information from, verify it from there,” Sunggyu says. Maybe he wouldn’t in the heat of the moment, but it’s what his rational mind tells him he would do. He has to add, “Plus I’m not the one that called Hoya.”

He didn’t need to wait to see Myungsoo scowl to know that was probably the wrong thing to say, “Look, Myungsoo I don’t want you to think that we don’t trust your judgement, but I’m also not going to apologise for taking a medical professional’s opinion more seriously than yours.”

“Okay,” Myungsoo says with a nod.

“No one thinks you're stupid though, if Sungjong hadn’t called I would have asked Sungyeol to check on the internet,” Sunggyu tells him. He feels like perhaps he’s going about this the wrong way but he can’t lie to Myungsoo, he deserves more than that.

“Okay,” Myungsoo nods with more finality this time, “I guess I understand that.”

Sunggyu knows a dismissal when he hears one so he gets up and leaves the room. Still Myungsoo clearly still has something on his mind so he makes a mental note to send Dongwoo to check on him. 

 

♟♟♟

THE CHASER JOB: APRIL 2012

 

Myungsoo’s least favourite part of grifting has always, always been when he has to try and seduce someone. Flirting, he can do fine, but something about the whole seduction, honey trap type role has always made his skin crawl, especially because they’re usually seducing someone to get to their mark instead of their mark themselves.

Luckily, Howon knew of his aversion and their plans had very rarely relied on it when they were together. Sunggyu was a lot more fond of that form of grifting in his plans, but at least Woohyun usually took on that part of the plan. Woohyun seemed to love it, seemed most in his element when he was flirting up a storm and breaking hearts, though thankfully he never actually slept with any of his targets (as far as Myungsoo was aware).

Seduction was a necessary evil in their jobs, but Myungsoo drew the line at sleeping with someone under false pretences to manipulate people. Luckily Woohyun did too (Myungsoo wonders sometimes, if Woohyun has a reason like Myungsoo does, or if he just has morals). 

Luckily, this time, Sunggyu just wants Woohyun to do a little flirting to get them both into the engineering firm, so Myungsoo probably isn’t going to suffer too much.

He trails behind Woohyun as they walk up to the reception desk, making a game of looking at all the security cameras he can, wondering which one Sungyeol has managed to hack access too (apparently there’s some reason Sungyeol can only get into one not all of them - Myungsoo wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention to Sungyeol’s extensive rant, he just knows that’s part of the reason they’re having to break in).

Myungsoo is so caught up in his game that he doesn’t notice Woohyun has stopped until he literally walks into his back. 

He’s not really listening to what Woohyun is saying, some meaningless greasy comment probably, when the girl he’s talking to laughs. He looks up so quickly he almost snaps his neck.

The girl sitting behind the desk is baby faced, long brown hair thrown up in a ponytail with messy bangs, the only remarkable feature of her face a small mole. Myungsoo is very glad that he has a lot of practice keeping his face straight as he peers over Woohyun’s shoulder into the face of one of his first ever friends. 

Her hair is a little different and he has no idea what she’s doing as the receptionist for an engineering firm in Seoul, but it’s unmistakably her.

In this light he bites his lip and tries not to outright laugh as Woohyun tries to flirt whilst getting absolutely nothing back but calm and rational responses. It must be doing Woohyun’s head in, Myungsoo has never seen someone not respond to Woohyun at all.

It’s a learning experience for Woohyun and hilarious for Myungsoo (and probably for everyone else listening on comms - especially Howon). 

Eventually, when the tension in Woohyun’s back looks like it’s going to explode Myungsoo decides to put him out of his misery.

“Soojung!” Myungsoo cries happily, pushing past Woohyun almost climbing over the desk in his attempt to get to her. Woohyun watches on bemused as Hoya laughs over the comms.

He feels a hand on the back of his shirt and then Woohyun is yanking him back beside him. He turns his head, ready to snipe at Woohyun for being bitter, but in the process notices someone coming down the hall from inside the building and immediately straightens up.

Maybe Woohyun had pulled him slightly harder than necessary, but it was in the name of the job. 

They watch on as the man stops by the reception desk, “Soojung,” he says (And Myungsoo is surprised she’s using her real name), “Are these men bothering you?”

“Not at all Mr Jung,” She says with a polite but disinterested smile (even more detached than the one she used on Woohyun - she’s been practicing), “I was just about to show our visitors to the CFO’s office for their meeting.”

“Well, okay,” The man straightens, “Good then,” then he walks off.

“If you’ll follow me gentlemen,” She says with the same smile, getting up and walking off to the lift.

“What the fuck is going on,” Woohyun whispers harshly as they follow behind her, “If this is another one of your going off script things Myungsoo I will rip your eyes from your head and feed them to our mark.”

“That’s a bit violent,” Sungjong comments mildly, “I didn’t know you had it in you Woohyun.”

“I didn’t know she’d be here, I swear,” Myungsoo says honestly, “Last I knew she was off at school in Daegu, I swear.” Then he adds cheekily, because he likes to wind Woohyun up, “I did pretend not to know her to watch you embarrass yourself though. That was fun.”

Sungyeol’s the one cackling down the comms this time.

“It’s never embarrassing if it’s for a job,” Woohyun says stiffly as they stop behind Soojung at the lift.

Eventually the get in and Myungsoo sighs, “Soojung, what are you doing here?” he asks.

She glares at him, pointing surreptitiously to the cameras. Myungsoo shakes his head, “It’s fine, we’ve got it. We’ve got it right Sungyeol?” He asks, because oops what if they don’t.

“Yes we’ve got it Myungsoo,” Sungyeol sighs that long suffering sigh that means he thinks they take his skills for granted, “It was a close call though, I told you this place was almost impossible to get into,”

“You’re just that good though,” Myungsoo smiles up at the camera winningly, enjoying the way Sungyeol scoffs. 

“Comms, with our team,” Woohyun explains to Soojung, pointing to his ear. She nods in understanding.

“Well, I was trying to get my life on the straight and narrow, something you and,” She pauses here, waits for Myungsoo’s tiny shake of his head before she says, “Hoya would know nothing about.”

“Tell her I was on the straight and narrow when I met her,” Howon says sounding more offended than an ex-assassin has any right to.

Myungsoo parrots Howon’s response back to Soojung and she laughs, “What are you doing here then? Trying to rob the company for all it’s worth? I don’t know I want a part in that Myungsoo.” She says, seriously now.

“No, we’re, we’re trying something different now,” Myungsoo says. Woohyun’s standing in the back of the elevator, giving them space which is nice, but also leaving all the explaining to Myungsoo which is less than nice.

“Myungsoo developed a Robin Hood complex,” Woohyun says dryly. Not at all helpful.

“Not stealing from the rich, from the corrupt,” Myungsoo says looking to Soojung, “This company isn’t good.”

Soojung’s face twists, “Yeah, I didn’t think it could be.”

“I don’t want to get you in trouble,” Myungsoo tells her earnestly. Soojung is one of his favourite people on the planet and that’s the last thing she deserves, “So if you could just direct us to the computer servers we’ll let you have no part in this.”

“Kim Myungsoo, if you think that you can tell me that this place is corrupt as heck and you’re trying to take it down and then expect me to go back to sitting at that desk which is an insult to my degree, you’re sorely mistaken,” Soojung says, the rare but dangerous fire he recognises so well in her eyes.

Myungsoo smiles, and doesn’t even bother asking Sunggyu before he says, “Well then, welcome to the team.”

 

 

 

♝♝♝

POST BE MINE JOB : AUGUST 2011

 

It’s always fascinating and yet kind of sad to watch Myungsoo in the days after a job draws to a close. At first he’s ecstatic, and the rest of them barely see him because he’s got Hoya to himself for a few days with no pressure of the job or Sunggyu breathing down their necks about priorities. After a few days it shifts, Myungsoo is clingier than usual, melancholic. Like he’s trying too hard to hold onto sand slipping through his fingers. 

Too soon though Hoya leaves again, off to wherever he goes. The first time Myungsoo had stayed back Sungyeol had been confused, to say the least. It had taken a few weeks of Myungsoo’s sulking to realise he was really staying around.

Sungyeol’s still not sure why Myungsoo stays and Hoya goes, not when Myungsoo spends the first few weeks after Hoya goes looking absolutely miserable.

Sungyeol had asked Myungsoo that, one of the first times that he’d stayed whilst Hoya had gone off. It was during the first few days of moping, the worst days, when Myungsoo resembled an abandoned puppy waiting by the door for an owner to come back.

(Which was probably a terrible metaphor because Hoya didn’t  _own_  Myungsoo or anything Sungyeol knew that very well, but it was the best he could come up with. He was a numbers kind of guy, no one ever said he was any good at poetry.)

Myungsoo had fixed Sungyeol with a look like he thought Sungyeol was an idiot. “Because I want to,” Myungsoo he’d answered like it was obvious. 

He doesn’t act like he wants to stay, not at first, but Sungyeol doesn’t push it. 

Because sometimes Myungsoo goes go off when Hoya does, but unless they’re called back unexpectedly for a job he always returns to them before Hoya does. 

They adapt. Myungsoo’s moping gets less obvious and most of the team learns to give him space.

Sungyeol expects, perhaps naively, that after the Be Mine job things are going to change. It feels like they’ve finally clicked as a team. Like something has fundamentally shifted in the way they work together. They’re not friends, well not all of them, and there’s still enough bickering and buried secrets to fuel a weekend drama for a year. 

Sungyeol feels like the level of mistrust has lifted, like things are less likely to devolve into a fist fight or a verbal battle. Like they’ve come to a mutual sort of understanding.

For a day or so Sungyeol had thought Hoya might even stick around. And when two weeks had passed since the job was finished and Myungsoo didn’t look like something he loved was about to be slowly ripped from his grasp Sungyeol had thought he was right.

Sungyeol was wrong.

He finds that out when he returns to his room after running down some information for Sunggyu to find Myungsoo curled up in the arm chair he keeps in the corner of the room.

Myungsoo doesn’t even have to say anything for Sungyeol to know that Hoya’s gone again. Sungyeol was planning on sleeping for a long time, but he drops that plan as soon as Myungsoo looks up at him.

“Well, come here then,” Sungyeol sighs sitting on the bed against the head board and opening his arms. Myungsoo is cuddled up into his side before he even gets chance to blink.

“What’s up?” Sungyeol asks once Myungsoo has settled, even though it’s very obvious what’s up.

“Howon is gone again,” Myungsoo says with a pout. Sungyeol can tell how unsettled he is by the use of Hoya’s real name. 

In fact Sungyeol hasn’t seen Myungsoo this upset by Hoya leaving in a while. Perhaps Sungyeol hadn’t read Myungsoo wrong, maybe it was Myungsoo that had read Hoya wrong.

“He stuck around longer than usual this time,” Sungyeol says keeping as voice as light as he can manage.

“Yeah,” Myungsoo says faintly.

“I know, you said you stayed because you wanted to, last time I asked,” Sungyeol says carefully when it becomes clear that Myungsoo isn’t going to offer anything more on the subject but clearly wants to talk about it, “But why?”

“I like you guys, I like having a semi-permanent place to live, I like,” Myungsoo shrugs helplessly, like he’s not sure how to describe it, “I like living like this.”

“You kind of look miserable,” Sungyeol points out going for his usual lack of tact since it’s expected at this point.

“I want to be with Howon, but I don’t want to run away the same way he does,” Myungsoo says, so quietly Sungyeol has to strain to hear him even though they’re pressed right up against each other.

“You want him to stay,” Sungyeol says coming to the realisation. He’s not sure how he managed to miss it this long in all honesty, it’s pretty fucking obvious now that he’s put it into words.

“I want him to stay and I want him to be happy and safe,” Myungsoo says like that’s not really fucking obvious. The two of them are so in love it’s sickening. 

Sungyeol hums in acknowledgment because he doesn’t know what there is to say.

Myungsoo takes it as an encouragement to keep speaking, “I worry about him. When he’s alone. I know physically he’s fine, he can take care of himself god help anyone who tries to come after him,” Myungsoo says, playing with the corner of Sungyeol’s pillow, “But he didn’t really cope last time he was alone.”

Sungyeol knows a little bit about what he’s talking about but Hoya doesn’t ever talk about his life before Myungsoo, not unless he’s talking about his military service (or sometimes sharing embarrassing stories about Sungjong - those are Sungyeol’s favourite).

“It’s different though, even though he’s physically alone he’s still got you,” Sungyeol says. The two of them talk on the phone pretty much every day. Sungyeol’s sure Myungsoo still talks to Hoya more than he talks to Sunggyu or Sungjong on a daily basis. 

“He’s got me, but it’s not the same,”

“He’s not going to do anything stupid Myungsoo,” Sungyeol points out, “not when he has you.”

“Stupid no, reckless maybe,” Myungsoo says. Honestly Sungyeol knew the two of them were codependent to an almost dangerous level, but he didn’t know Myungsoo worried about Hoya quite so much.

“He’ll be fine,” Sungyeol soothes Myungsoo feeling like he understands so much better now.

“I don’t want him to just be fine, I want him to be happy. I want him to feel safe here,” Myungsoo says with a frown, “I want him to know he doesn’t have to run away.”

“I’m sure he knows,” Sungyeol says. Of that much he’s sure, he gets where Hoya is coming from, perhaps even more than Myungsoo does, “Just give him time.”

Sungyeol is confident Hoya is going to get to the point where he sticks around - though Sungyeol’s money is on him choosing to stay around for Myungsoo, not whatever reasons Myungsoo is projecting.

“I’m being stupid,” Myungsoo says with a shake of his head, “Howon is fine.”

“You are,” Sungyeol agrees, laughing at the way Myungsoo glares at him, “But you’re like grossly in love so that’s to be expected.”

“Fuck you,” Myungsoo says with absolutely no heat.

“I would love to but your life partner scares me so I’ll take a hard pass,” Sungyeol says with a leer and a haughty tone.

Myungsoo laughs at that, hiding it into Sungyeol’s shoulder.

It’s good, laughter is good. Sungyeol might be imagining it but already Myungsoo looks lighter, perhaps at just having shared his worries.

Still Sungyeol doesn’t want Myungsoo to start sulking again so he thinks fast and says, “So, now that we’re done talking about how out of touch with his feelings Hoya is, how about we have some fun?”

“I’m not helping you prank Sungjong,” Myungsoo says immediately shaking his head, “I really don’t want Sungjong coming after my head. My stuff goes missing enough as it is.”

“Not Sungjong,” Sungyeol says indignantly even though Sungjong was going to be his suggestion. Myungsoo can read him too well, “I was going to suggest Woohyun.”

Myungsoo smiles in that unsettling way of his. Sungyeol is glad Myungsoo isn’t trying to prank him as a distraction for his worries, “Well in that case, I might have an idea or two.”

 

 

♘♘♘

POST OGS : SEPTEMBER 2013

 

When the knock comes on his apartment door at 9 in the evening Sungjong is not expecting it at all.

He doesn’t really get visitors that often, not many people know where he lives. Howon always knows as soon as Sungjong moves, but he never knocks, just lets himself in like he knows the place.  Sungyeol must know as well, of course he does, but Sungyeol’s never shown any interest in visiting. 

As far as he’s aware, no one else in the team knows his address and the complex is affluent enough that the other residents in the building are too self absorbed to try and make friends with the neighbours. 

For a brief second he considers maybe SM has found them but he dismisses that notion quickly. He knows he’s well hidden here in the way you can only be in plain sight, plus after everything he’s seen from SM in the last month he’s pretty sure knocking on the door isn’t exactly their style. He imagines they’re more of the kick in the door all guns blazing kind of visitors. 

It has to be someone who could get in past the buildings pretty strict security, and if they can do that they can get into Sungjong’s house. He’s honestly pretty stumped at who it could be, whoever it is has managed to stand out of the line of sight of the camera.

Eventually he decides to check the peep hole the old fashioned way.

He’s less surprised than he should be to find that it’s Myungsoo (Sungyeol or Hoya has clearly told him where to find Sungjong - though why he’s looking for him is another matter entirely).

Sungjong swings the door open, “What are you wearing on your head?” He can’t help but ask.

Because Myungsoo has a beanie pulled low over his ears. It’s not just any beanie though, it’s pink and yellow striped, fluffy and covered in more pom poms than it has any right to support. It also looks like it was knitted by a four year old.

“It’s a beanie,” Myungsoo smiles at him cheerfully. Sungjong doesn’t smile back because he doesn’t know what Myungsoo could possibly want, is surprised Howon is even letting him out of his line of sight at this point. 

“Okay, why are you wearing the ugliest beanie on the planet?” Sungjong asks.

“Hey, Jiwon knitted this for me,” Myungsoo tells him not sounding particularly offended. Sungjong supposes that explains why it looks like the stitches could fall apart at any second, “And Howon insisted that if I was going to leave the house I had to wear something to cover my head, and so here I am.” Myungsoo shrugs like it’s no big deal.

Except it is a big deal because Hoya is only forcing Myungsoo to wear an ugly beanie because he’s still got a giant hole in his head, and Myungsoo has no reason to be here when he should be resting. 

“Can, I come in?” Myungsoo asks when Sungjong doesn’t say anything because he’s too caught up in his thoughts. 

“It depends,” Sungjong says, though he knows there’s really nothing he can do to stop Myungsoo coming in - he very much isn't going to physically stop him, “What do you want?”

“I just wanted to talk to you,” Myungsoo says like that’s a thing they’ve ever done before. Sure they’ve talked, Sungjong likes Myungsoo well enough, but they’re not close. Myungsoo never seeks Sungjong out to talk, probably doesn’t single anyone that’s not Sungyeol or Howon our if they’re not nearby. 

Still Sungjong can’t argue with that, and leaving Myungsoo in the hallway will probably attract the attention of a neighbour, so he steps back to let him pass.

Myungsoo smiles brightly at him and comes in, shedding his coat but leaving the ugly beanie firmly planted on his head. 

Instead he looks around Sungjong’s apartment curiously before firmly planting himself at the dining table Sungjong has never used.

Sungjong eyes him warily as he turns the kettle on and makes them both cups of tea, but Myungsoo doesn’t do anything. He doesn’t try and talk, he doesn’t pull his phone out to look busy, he just sits there and taps his fingers on the table in a mindless rhythm. 

The ugly beanie is still perched on his head.

Sungjong isn’t stupid. Sungjong knows that Myungsoo probably is doing it for Sungjong’s benefit. Knows that he’s not exactly been the most subtle about how disconcerting he’s found Myungsoo’s whole ordeal.

He’ll never be able to get the image of Myungsoo collapsing out of his head, he dreams about it still, but the closed shaved spot that Myungsoo is still sporting brings the memory to the front of his conscience, makes it hard to concentrate on anything else.

Sungjong knows Myungsoo must know that, it’s the only way the beanie makes sense. He doesn’t know if Myungsoo figured it out or Hoya has told him.

Sungjong sets the mug of tea in front of Myungsoo before sitting on the table in front of him. It puts him above Myungsoo, so he doesn’t have to meet his eye, but sitting at the dining room table reminds him too vividly of his family.

“Alright, what did you want to talk about?” Sungjong asks Myungsoo.

“I just wanted to thank you,” Myungsoo tells him earnestly as he wraps his hands around the mug.

Sungjong is taken aback, of all the things he expected Myungsoo to want to say that was nowhere on his list. His best guess would have been that Myungsoo wanted to talk about Sungyeol or that Hoya had sent Myungsoo to check up on him.

“For what?” Sungjong manages to ask.

“For keeping calm, for being rational, getting Woohyun out of danger and then coming to rescue me. For looking out for me, sorry if I scared you, for making sure Howon looked after himself when I was in hospital. For looking out for me even though I know it made you uncomfortable. For a lot of things,” Myungsoo tells him earnestly.

Sungjong is used to Myungsoo’s over the top brand of fake earnestness, he’s used to seeing his honestly earnest care directed at Sungyeol and Howon and occasionally even Dongwoo.

He’s never had it directed at him before and he’s not sure how he feels about it. He thinks he can see why everyone is so wrapped around Myungsoo’s little finger now.

“You don’t have to thank me,” Sungjong says, trying to hide his discomfort but probably failing spectacularly, “I literally didn’t do anything except be a decent human being.”

Myungsoo fixes him with that considering look of his that reminds Sungjong way too much of someone he doesn’t want to think about.

“You wouldn’t have done it two years ago and I think you were a pretty decent human being back then,” Myungsoo tells him eventually looking down at his cup, though whether that’s for his own comfort or Sungjong’s.. well, Sungjong can’t tell.

Sungjong doesn’t know if it’s because he’s not particularly close to Myungsoo or because they almost lost Myungsoo but he finds it easier than it’s ever been for him to admit, “I care about all of you.” He pauses, but then deciding that sounds like too much he adds, “I mean, this job would get a lot harder without all of us.”

Myungsoo smiles knowingly at him, “Of course it would. I appreciate it.”

“You scared us,” Sungjong admits though he can’t say why. He wants to put Myungsoo off balance but it’s also unequivocally true.

“I know, I’m sorry,” Myungsoo says looking down at his hands.

Sungjong laughs because that’s so typically Myungsoo, guilt complex and all. Except Sungjong is starting to see that maybe that’s not exactly it, that maybe Myungsoo just really has such low self-worth he feels responsible for things completely out of his control.

“If you were really sorry you wouldn’t be wandering around town alone, at night, with your injury still so fresh,” Sungjong points out to change the subject.

The way he catches a brief smile on Myungsoo’s face before he ducks his head makes Sungjong think perhaps he’d walked into a trap.

“Well, I had to talk to you and you live so far from us that you didn’t really give me much choice did you?” Myungsoo asks.

“You could have chosen to come during the day,” Sungjong points out dryly. It’s not like Sungjong is never at the house the rest of them chose to share either, Myungsoo could have cornered him one of those visits.

“I’m fine Sungjong, I’ve looked after myself for a long time,” Myungsoo says with a little smile, “A walk through Seoul is not going to kill me.”

“No but a walk through Seoul with lingering effects of a brain injury and SM still on our ass might,” Sungjong says. It’s stupid of Myungsoo to do this, and even if he has the feeling Myungsoo is trying to provoke this reaction he can’t help it.

“Look, if you choose to isolate yourself like this then you have have to accept the risks,” Myungsoo says. Little shit.

“Wanting my space is not isolating myself,” Sungjong snaps automatically before taking a breath. He’s not going to let Myungsoo goad him into anything, “I’m fine Myungsoo.”

“And so am I,” Myungsoo says leaning forward earnestly, having arrived at his point, “And I’d feel better if you were staying with us, we all should be together right now, but if you don’t want to I won’t force you. I just need you to know that I am okay.”

“I know,” Sungjong says, “That you’re okay now. But you weren’t okay and that scared me and,”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Myungsoo tells him discerningly, looking more mature than Sungjong has seen him “It wasn’t Woohyun’s fault, we all know that, it wasn’t Sungyeol’s fault and it sure as fuck wasn’t your fault. So stop torturing yourself.”

Sungjong gapes, “I don’t think it’s my fault.” Sungjong’s never though Myungsoo’s injury was his fault. He has guilt but he doesn’t blame himself. 

“Okay, I’m glad,” Myungsoo smiles.

Sungjong has no clue what the fuck has happened in this conversation but he feels like he’s been played. “You can stay the night here,” he says when it becomes clear that Myungsoo has said his piece.

Myungsoo looks at him slightly shocked, “What?”

“Well, you’re not going back out tonight,” Sungjong says. Typical of Myungsoo, to put everyone else before him days after leaving the hospital.

Sungjong has a lot of things to think about, but he knows the decisions he’s probably going to arrive at in the end.

Myungsoo smiles.

 

 

 

♟♟♟

 

 

Myungsoo tries to do like Howon suggests and give Sungyeol some space to deal with things himself, he really does. He gives Sungyeol space as much as he can, which is not much, though he thinks Howon probably meant mental space not physical space.

He treats Sungyeol the same as ever, and if he talks Howon’s ear off with his worry, well then Howon doesn’t mind indulging him because Howon is the best (sometimes he honestly feels like Howon would let him get away with basically anything and still love him unconditionally afterwards - it’s a scary responsibility but it’s also a really empowering thought). 

For a month he’s patient and doesn’t force Sungyeol to talk or anything, and everything is great. Except just when Myungsoo thinks maybe Howon was right, maybe he was overreacting Sungyeol starts to get weird again.

Not weird, Myungsoo thinks, sad.

Myungsoo hates it when people he cares about are sad or upset, granted he’s not used to having this many people to care about, but no matter who it is he hates it. Hates the way that he knows what it’s like to be sad, knew nothing but sadness for what felt like an eternity when he was a kid. He never wants anyone he cares about to feel even a fraction of that emptiness, the loneliness and the bone-deep aching.

Of course sadness is a natural part of life, so he’s been told, but he doesn’t like it; goes out of his way to try and make sure no one has to suffer the same way he did. Maybe sadness is a natural part of life, but being lonely doesn’t have to be.

So Myungsoo hates seeing people he loves sad, but there’s something especially awful about Sungyeol being sad. Maybe it’s because he’s one of Sungyeol’s favourite people on the planet, maybe because there’s something so achingly familiar in Sungyeol’s sadness. Whatever it is, Myungsoo will always put extra effort into making sure Sungyeol is okay; that he doesn’t have to suffer alone.

So Myungsoo does what he can, spends so much time with Sungyeol, hanging off him, reminding him he’s not alone. Giving him space has never worked so maybe Sungyeol needs smothering. And maybe Sungyeol appreciates it, maybe he doesn’t, but it doesn’t  _help_  and Myungsoo has never felt more helpless.

Where he draws the line though, is the day he goes looking for Sungyeol and finds him in the gym. Sungyeol in the gym is unfortunately not as uncommon as it used to be, and more than once Howon has had to drag him away when he’s reached his limit (Myungsoo is so glad Howon has listened to him and kept an eye on Sungyeol in the gym - thinks he might have reached the point where he’s as worried as Myungsoo is). 

When Myungsoo enters the gym that evening though, his first melodramatic thought is that Sungyeol has seriously injured himself. He rushes over, to where Sungyeol is lying on his back staring up at the ceiling and drops to his knees next to him, quickly looking him over for injuries (he’s gotten uncomfortably competent and scanning for hidden injuries over the years).

“Sungyeol,” Myungsoo says, when he’s sure that Sungyeol is physically fine, “What are you doing.”

What he’s doing is scaring Myungsoo, staring up at the ceiling in a way that is uncomfortably empty, “having a nap,” Sungyeol says, sounding downright exhausted. 

“You can’t nap in the gym, someone might trample you,” Myungsoo says, keeping his voice light. Dongwoo and Howon are away, so no one is actually going to use the gym, but he can’t in good conscience just let Sungyeol lie here.

“It’s a risk I’m willing to take,” Sungyeol says.

“No, come on Sungyeol, get up,” Myungsoo sighs, reaching over and helping Sungyeol into a sitting position. Sungyeol is surprisingly pliant, lets Myungsoo manhandle him upstairs into his room. Listens when Myungsoo insists he has a shower. 

The entire time he doesn’t say anything, doesn’t crack a stupidly lewd comment when Myungsoo lies on top of the bedsheets next to him, just sighs and falls asleep.

Myungsoo doesn’t though, Myungsoo can’t, spends most of the evening just watching Sungyeol sleep and thinking. Sungyeol has been struggling, and Myungsoo recognises that Sungyeol has brought some of this on himself, but he also recognises it’s the weight of his own guilt that’s been crushing him more than anything.

He just wishes Sungyeol would talk to him, would let go of that guilt. Would talk to anyone, try to cope in a healthy manner instead of repressing his feelings. 

It’s Howon all over again, and nothing makes that more startlingly clear than the way Sungyeol acts like absolutely nothing had happened the next morning.

Doesn’t acknowledge the fact that Myungsoo had found him verging on catatonic (to be melodramatic) yesterday evening, the fact that he’s currently in Myungsoo’s bed having slept the night there. He cracks jokes and makes sarcastic comments and he’s off for his laptop.

Myungsoo grows increasingly frustrated over the next week as Sungyeol goes back to normal. Aggressively normal. The daytime trips to the gym stop (Myungsoo is convinced that he still goes in the evening), he starts bickering with Woohyun again (Sungjong is still off limits but that’s more by Sungjong’s choice than anything else), starts questioning Sunggyu’s authority.

Everyone else lets out a sigh of relief, thinks that Sungyeol is back to normal but Myungsoo doesn’t, Myungsoo knows better (thinks that Howon would agree with him if he was here). Howon isn’t here though and Myungsoo is the only one that thinks Sungyeol is still weird. 

That Sungyeol is still sad, the expression on his face dropping when he thinks no one is looking (Myungsoo is always looking).

Eventually he’s had enough. One evening he grabs Sungyeol by the hand and drags him into his bedroom, depositing him on the bed, “Lee Sungyeol, what are you doing?” Myungsoo says, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I am sitting on your bed right now, where I have unceremoniously been dumped like a piece of trash,” Sungyeol retorts, eyebrow raised. He’s not questioning Myungsoo’s behaviour though, probably because he’s so used to it.

“That’s not what I mean,” Myungsoo sighs, wanting nothing more than to pace the length of his room but deciding better of it, “What’s up with you?”

“Nothing much, the usual, overworked by Sunggyu, taken for granted by everyone,” Sungyeol says with a light voice that’s doing nothing to cover how exhausted he sounds.

Myungsoo knows that Sungyeol really feels taken for granted and under appreciated, it doesn’t take a genius to figure it out, which is why he always makes an effort to thank Sungyeol (thank everyone on his team) for whatever contribution they make.

He knows though that’s not all this is, it can’t be.

“Sungyeol,” Myungsoo says, trying to keep his voice level. He struggles though because he’s never been able to master the ability to keep his voice level when he’s concerned about someone he loves, “please, you’re scaring me.”

Something shifts in Sungyeol’s expression for a second, something raw and vulnerable, before it’s gone behind his usual mask. He laughs, but it’s an awfully forced sound, “No need to be so melodramatic Myungsoo.”

“No,” Myungsoo says sitting down on the bed next to him, so close their knees are brushing against each other, “Don’t you dare do that to me Lee Sungyeol, don’t pretend to be fine when I can see that you’re obviously not.”

“Myungsoo,” Sungyeol says awkwardly.

“If you say you are fine I will tie you to this fucking bed and never, ever let you up ever again,” Myungsoo says fiercely. He is tired of this shit, he just wants Sungyeol to stop running and be  _okay_. Not even to be okay, he just wants him to admit that he’s not okay.  

“I would die pretty quickly and I think that would defeat the purpose,” Sungyeol says with a twisted little smile.

“Maybe you deserve it,” Myungsoo mutters petulantly, then because he feels bad about saying it even as a joke he rushes to add, “No you don’t, you deserve to be happy and I don’t think you are and I don’t like that.”

“Myungsoo,” Sungyeol sounds strangled again, “Please don’t."

“Sungyeol,” Myungsoo grabs at Sungyeol’s hands, “I don’t, I respect that maybe you don’t like to talk about things if there’s anything wrong, I’m serious don’t you dare deny it,”

“I wasn’t going to,” Sungyeol mutters (lies probably) under his breath. Myungsoo ignores him.

“But Sungyeol, the other weekend in the gym? You scared me, I don’t want you to hurt yourself,” He says. He doesn’t want Sungyeol hurting at all, but he figures Sungyeol would just laugh at him if he actually said that.

“I’m sorry if I scared you,” Sungyeol says, and for him to be apologising it must be bad.

“Sungyeol, I don’t know what you’re going through but I know whatever it is you feel like you deserve it and I know whatever it is you don’t deserve it. You don’t deserve to suffer so  _please_  don’t just, deal with it. I want you to be okay,” Myungsoo says, forcing Sungyeol to look him in the eye. He hasn’t been this sincere with Sungyeol in ages, but he feels like if he doesn’t his heart is going to burst out his chest, “Sungyeol you are my best friend, you are so fucking important to me. Please stop doing this to yourself.” He says, leaning in closer to convince Sungyeol of his point.

Sungyeol’s hands are shaking in Myungsoo’s, his eyes are shifty even as he holds Myungsoo’s eyes and he looks like he’s two seconds from bolting from the room. Myungsoo can’t have that, so he does the only think he can think of.

He leans even closer and kisses him

 

 

 

 

♖♖♖

 THE MAN IN LOVE JOB : APRIL 2013

 

Myungsoo has been dealing with a lot of things recently, Dongwoo knows that, what between juggling assignments of his fake degree and his ‘work’ for their mark and his fake marriage, especially the cohabitation with Woohyun part of his fake marriage.

It’s why Dongwoo tries not to take offence when the smiles falls off Myungsoo’s face as he opens the door to the apartment he’s forced to share with Woohyun.

“Don’t look so happy to see me,” Dongwoo says, rocking on the balls of his feet, “Otherwise I’d think you might actually like me.”

“I thought Sungyeol was coming?” Myungsoo asks with a little frown.

“Well, Sungyeol is busy with Hoya so you’ve got me,” Dongwoo shrugs, holding out a bag of food in offering, “I brought food?”

“I suppose you better come in then,” Myungsoo sighs turning around and letting Dongwoo follow him into the apartment. 

For the most part, as Dongwoo can understand, Myungsoo and Woohyun don’t use comms around the apartment unless they’ve got something planned for the job so Dongwoo has his in his pocket but he hadn’t bothered turning it on. No one’s monitoring them right now anyway, Sunggyu is off with the other two and Sungjong is apparently sleeping.

“Who are you, if anyone asks?” Myungsoo asks settling himself into what can only be described as a nest he’s built in the corner of the couch. 

“Dunno, this is why you’re the grifter not me,” Dongwoo tells him. That’s the sort of detail Sunggyu would usually provide, but the only reason he’s over right now is the fact that Sungyeol’s part of the job was more complicated than expected so Sunggyu is a little tied up at the moment.

“Fine, you can be the toilet cleaner then ” Myungsoo sighs wrapping himself in a fluffy pink blanket and opening the bag Dongwoo had brought. He instantly perks up, “Oh, you brought me doughnuts! Maybe I’ll upgrade you to the oven cleaner.”

“You’re so kind,” Dongwoo says dryly, perching himself on the couch next to Myungsoo’s nest. He doesn’t bother pointing out that if he was a cleaner he’d have supplies not food because he’s pretty sure that Myungsoo isn’t actually going to claim that’s what he is anyone asks (Dongwoo didn’t see anyone on the way up so he can’t imagine they actually will).

Myungsoo doesn’t reply on account of the fact he has a doughnut stuffed in his mouth.

Dongwoo graciously waits until he’s finished eating before he asks after Woohyun.

“He’s at ‘work’” Myungsoo says, air quotes and all, “He should be back soon though.”

“How’s living with him then?” Dongwoo asks. He gets the feeling that Myungsoo isn’t loving it and needs an outlet to vent.

“It’s not like I’ve never lived with him before,” Myungsoo says deflecting the question. 

That’s fine with Dongwoo, he just hums in agreement before launching into a story of the latest argument that Sungjong and Sungyeol got into this morning which gets Myungsoo giggling.

By the end of the story Myungsoo looks a lot more at ease, so Dongwoo isn’t surprised that he gets an answer to his question of twenty minutes ago, “It’s harder than I thought it would be,” Myungsoo offers without preamble, but they both know what he’s talking about, “I mean it’s not that he’s doing anything wrong or anything but, I’m starting to realise how much Woohyun doesn’t really know me, you know?”

There’s lots of things Dongwoo could answer to that, he could point out that none of them really know much about each other, that Myungsoo still keeps a lot of his cards close to his chest even after three years. He could suggest that maybe Myungsoo is underselling Woohyun.

He doesn’t get a chance to respond at all because they're interrupted by the sound of the door opening and Woohyun singing out “Honey I’m home.”

Dongwoo is about to laugh at the stupidity of it when Myungsoo shushes him and whispers, “He’s got someone with him, quick hide in the bedroom.”

“Can’t you just pretend I’m someone who's meant to be here?” Dongwoo whispers, standing up but not moving away.

“No, the less of us that they know the face of the better, obviously,” Myungsoo hisses back, pushing Dongwoo towards the bedrooms by the butt.

Dongwoo rolls his eyes but complies, hiding himself in the ‘spare bedroom’ that is really Myungsoo’s. He sits with his ear against the door and listens as Woohyun and Myungsoo converse with the mark.

As always he’s slightly amazed and very awed by the way Myungsoo had just gone from sulking to the ass kissing, but not grovelling, student protégé persona that their mark was eating up. 

Dongwoo regrets the lack of comms entirely though as he sits there listening in for what feels like hours but his phone tells him is only half an hour, too afraid to move around too much lest he attracts the marks attention, before finally he leaves and Woohyun knocks on the bedroom door.

Dongwoo barely has time to scramble back before Woohyun is opening the door, looking around before noticing Dongwoo on the ground, “He’s gone,” Woohyun simply says, rolling his eyes before offering Dongwoo a hand up which he gratefully takes.

“What was that about?” Dongwoo asks, he’d managed to overhear bits and pieces but not enough to really put anything together.

“Oh, just the mark you know inviting me to his office next week, aka the in that Sungyeol needs to the system, no big deal,” Myungsoo says, chest puffed in pride.

“Yeah, just Myungsoo doing his job, nothing to write home about,” Woohyun drawls from where he’s sitting in the armchair.

It’s still close enough for Myungsoo to lash out with his foot and kick him without looking away from Dongwoo.

“Myungsoo is doing very well at his job though,” Woohyun amends with an odd look on his face, “We’re a bit ahead of schedule now? I think.”

“I’ll let Sunggyu know, when I go back,” Dongwoo offers, even though they could easily text Sunggyu or use their comms themselves.

“He said my work was excellent,” Myungsoo tells Dongwoo still in his little nest of blankets. How he managed to impress the mark as a business protégé when he looks like a four-year-old playing in a blanket fort is anyone’s guess.

“Sungyeol wrote that assignment for you,” Woohyun reminds him.

“It was all my work selling it,” Myungsoo says haughtily, patting the cushion next to him with his foot, “Come sit,” he practically ordered Dongwoo.

“Speaking of that, I have your next two assignments here,” Dongwoo says handing the USB over to Myungsoo as he follows his orders, “Sungyeol only had time to do one so Sungjong did the other one, though I think Hoya checked it for English,”

Grumbled about it the whole time as well, about how there was a very good reason he’d chosen not to go to university especially in a language he wasn’t fluent in.

“Thank you,” Myungsoo says, tucking the USB into his pocket before throwing his legs onto Dongwoo’s lap. It’s something Dongwoo has noticed when visiting, that Myungsoo is more touchy than usual (which he hadn’t thought was possible) probably because he was getting a bit touch deprived. 

“Wasn’t Sungyeol coming over to do something with Myungsoo’s laptop?” Woohyun asks when Myungsoo seems content to cosy up in his nest, “Not that I’m not thrilled to see you.”

“He was busy, he gave me this,” Dongwoo pulls another USB out of his pocket, pink so he couldn’t possibly mix it up with the other one, “Said that you would know what to do with it?” He offers it to Woohyun.

Woohyun grumbles under his breath about it but takes the USB.

“Was that all?” Myungsoo asks Dongwoo. The words should be rude but honestly they sound a bit desperate. Myungsoo is probably getting lonely for company that’s not Woohyun’s, especially if he really is feeling isolated and unseen like his earlier words suggested.

“Sunggyu said he was going to send Sungjong around when he woke up and he wanted me to hang around till then to help him with something,” Dongwoo says. Sunggyu had said to come back with Sungjong but staying wouldn’t hurt the plan in anyway, “If you’re not going to kick me out on my ass.”

“Wouldn’t want to cause a scene like that,” Woohyun says dryly, as Myungsoo gives up all pretences and shifts so he’s sitting pressed to Dongwoo’s side, head on Dongwoo’s shoulder.

“Yeah, as long as you cook. I’m getting tired of Woohyun’s attempts,” Myungsoo says teasingly. 

Woohyun throws a pillow at them then Dongwoo manages to bat away, “Yeah well you could pull your weight around here.”

“Excuse me, having to flirt with that piece of shit we call a mark is more than pulling my weight,” Myungsoo says, sounding genuinely troubled by that.

Woohyun must hear it as well because he softens and nods his head, “Alright, maybe you’re right,” he concedes before suggesting, “So, who's up for watching Gogglebox?”

It’s Myungsoo’s favourite. It’s a peace offering.

Dongwoo lets out a sigh of relief when Myungsoo accepts it. 

 

 

 

♟♟♟

Myungsoo is annoyed. Ever since their argument Howon has been avoiding him which is stupid because if anyone should be doing the avoiding it’s Myungsoo.

Howon can dress it up however he wants, but Hyuna, or murderous psychopath as Myungsoo likes to refer to her in his head is bad news. Hyuna asking for any favour is bad news, but the one she has asked is terrible news. And yet Howon is considering it.

Howon is considering it because he’s too trusting.

Myungsoo is probably the only person on the planet that thinks that, but it’s true. It takes time to get Howon to trust you but honestly his standards aren’t that high, stick around for a bit and don’t successfully kill him and you have his trust for life, probably. 

So yeah, Myungsoo thinks Howon is being naive and reckless wanting to help Hyuna  _murder_  someone. At best he’s going to get double crossed and have this murder pinned on him and at worst (and far more likely if you ask Myungsoo) get himself murdered. 

Myungsoo would be rather annoyed if Howon got himself murdered. Maybe he’d overreacted a bit, he might not have met Hyuna but he’s heard the way Howon still talks fondly of her and it’s hard not to be jealous. But then Howon had said the fatal words, that he’d pick Hyuna over Myungsoo, and well, that _hurt_. 

That was like Howon had looked inside Myungsoo’s brain and seen the biggest fear Myungsoo harbours, that one day Howon will get sick of Myungsoo, up and leave him and never turn back, and decided to throw it in his face. Tried to hurt him as best he can.

So the fact Howon is now acting like he has any right to ignore Myungsoo, like Myungsoo is the one in the wrong here hurts. It annoys him and it hurts. The fact that some of the others are helping Howon avoid him feels even worse.

It takes two days for Myungsoo to get fed up enough to put aside his petulance and seek out Howon for answers.

Except that task is not exactly as easy as it sounds. He figured Howon was avoiding him to prove a point and the fact that he was now seeking Howon out meant that would be the end of that. It’s not. Howon tries even harder, if that’s possible, and Myungsoo doesn’t see hide nor hair of him all day.

Eventually he gives up and heads for his room, which is when he’s intercepted by Sungjong.

Sungjong doesn’t actually say anything, just drops in front of him in the hallway and looks at him expectantly.

“What?” Myungsoo eventually asks, crossing his arms over his chest.

Sungjong sighs in disappointment, “Are you really that thick Kim Myungsoo?”

“What are you talking about?” Myungsoo asks annoyed, “Is this about Howon playing the victim.”

He’s not expecting Sungjong to reach out and smack him in the arm, “If you really think that’s what this is about I will personally make sure that you are never in the same country as Howon for the rest of your miserable fucking life,” he hisses, eyes blazing.

Myungsoo takes a step back, surprised by how vicious Sungjong is being, “I don’t understand.” 

Sungjong sighs again, “You’re meant to be a grifter Myungsoo, you’re meant to love him more than anyone else on the planet. Use your brain.”

“If this is about the argument, I don’t think I was too wrong to question the motives of a noted killer, I don’t think Howon was justified in what he said to me,” Myungsoo says, drawing himself up because he is not going to just take this.

“Maybe not, but it doesn’t matter who was in the wrong in the fucking argument Myungsoo. You had an argument, you yelled and you screamed and you  _threw_  something at him. Think about that for a second.” Sungjong says, gentler but still notably annoyed.

“What, but I just,” Myungsoo says, thinking back to the argument. To being so mad he’d picked up the closest thing to him (his favourite photo frame) and hurling at it. Thinks about the things he didn’t notice at the time, the way Howon had curled in on himself, the way his eyes had shuttered.

The penny drops and Myungsoo feels terrible, “No,” he whispers, because he can’t believe even in his anger he did that.

Sungjong nods at him approvingly, “Okay, I tried but you got past me,” Myungsoo is surprised when Sungjong steps away from the door, thought it would take more than that, “Be careful with him though,” Sungjong warns, before he’s gone.

Myungsoo stands in the hallway for what feels like an eternity, all the anger gone and replaced with a sickening sense of shame. Of guilt. He’s an awful person, understands now why Sungjong was so mad, why Howon has been avoiding him.

Eventually though, when he decides he’d better deal with this sooner than later he opens the door.

The light is off Howon is lying in bed, back to the door, and so obviously awake judging by the way he tenses when he hears the door open. He knows it’s Myungsoo, had memorised the pattern of his steps years ago. 

“Howon,” Myungsoo says, shutting the door behind him and debating whether or not to flick the light on. Eventually he decides to go for the bedside lamp, feeling his way awkwardly to the bed careful not to trip over anything.

He doesn’t get a response. He wasn’t expecting one, “Howon I am so, so sorry,” he whispers, even though there’s no reason to, “I’m sorry I lost my temper and I’m sorry I threw something at you,”

Howon still doesn’t respond as Myungsoo sits on the bed, “Howon,” he says, then sighs, not sure what to do.

Myungsoo lies down, staring up at the ceiling, trying not to flinch at the way Howon shuffles away from him when their feet brush. He swallows down the urge to cry, because this isn’t about him and instead asks, “Do you need me to go?”

There’s a long pause, and the hoarse answer that Myungsoo gets breaks his heart just slightly (he deserves it) “I don’t know.”

Myungsoo sits up, feeling restless, feeling the urge to touch Howon. He always has the urge to touch, but especially when things are fucked up. He knows that would make things worse though, so he targets his restless energy in tapping his finger on his thigh. 

“I’m sorry I got so mad at you I couldn’t see straight, I’m sorry that I threw something that means so much to us, I’m sorry that violence was my answer to an argument,” He swallows back the urge to cry again, “I’m sorry I was just like your dad.”

He’s staring at his hands, willing the urge to cry away, so he doesn’t notice at first that Howon has turned over. There’s still what feels like acres of space between them but Howon is looking at him. Looking at him with eyes that are so sad and distant. “My dad never apologised,” Howon says, eventually.

It doesn’t make Myungsoo feel much better.

“That, doesn’t really matter does it,” Myungsoo says, not sure what he’s trying to say. He feels like a monster, “How do I fix this.”

Howon is quiet as he sits up and looks at Myungsoo, eventually he says, “I don’t think anything’s broken.” 

Myungsoo laughs bitterly, “You’ve been avoiding me for days, that sounds broken to me.” As soon as the words are out of his mouth he feels awful and he rushes to add, “Not that--you had every right to, but that does mean something’s broken.”

“Did you mean to throw  _that_  photo?” Howon asks him, completely swerving the conversation in a direction Myungsoo never expected.

“What? No of course not,” Myungsoo says straight away. It’s potentially his favourite possession on the planet, knows it’s Howon’s outside of the ring, “It was the closest thing to me and I didn’t think and I’m so sorry I broke it.”

He thinks it’s fitting though, the symbolism of what he’s broken. One of the happiest moments of their relationship; their relationship.

“That’s what my dad used to do you know,” Howon says. Myungsoo didn’t know, he’s only heard the story of Howon’s dad once a long time ago. The look on Howon’s face when he told it was enough that Myungsoo never brought it up again, “The hitting I could take, the insults as well, but he used to break things that mattered. Things I loved. That’s how he  _broke_  my mum.”

That’s how he almost broke Howon, if Howon hadn’t been strong enough (if Howon hadn’t had Sungjong). 

“I don’t want to be like your dad, the last thing I ever want to do is hurt you. But I did, I got so angry I forgot myself and that’s not fucking okay,” Myungsoo says quietly.  He doesn’t want Howon to be mad at him, but Howon should be so mad at him.

“Myungsoo, I got so mad at Woohyun that I punched him unprovoked. I provoked you,” Howon says looking into Myungsoo’s eyes for the first time. Myungsoo relaxes a little. There’s fear and sadness all swirling in Howon’s face but Myungsoo can see the love underneath it all, as cheesy as it sounds. Howon has always kept his feelings so obvious around Myungsoo and the fact he’s not hiding them right now can only mean good things, “I shouldn’t be upset about this.”

“But you are,” Myungsoo says quietly. Howon is upset and he has every right to be.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Howon says sounding frustrated. 

“You’re the one that always tells me that trauma doesn’t make sense,” Myungsoo says quietly, even though in his opinion Howon being upset makes perfect sense.

“It’s been years, I should be over it,” Howon says.

“That’s bullshit,” Myungsoo says strongly, “That’s  _not_  how trauma works. I triggered you and I’m so so sorry about that. I don’t want you to be scared of me.”

Howon snorts out a laugh at that, it’s fake, but the effort is what counts, “Myungsoo you are potentially the least scary person I have ever met in my life.”

Myungsoo doesn’t respond to that, he has a more important task at hand “How can I make it up to you. How  do I make it better,” Myungsoo isn’t surprised that Howon flinches away when he makes to reach out to him. It’s still an awful feeling (nothing compared to what Howon must be feeling).

“I don’t think you need to do anything,” Howon says. Myungsoo disagrees, but the look on Howon’s face tells him not to argue, “I think I just need, my body needs to process that.”

“Do you need me to sleep somewhere else?” Myungsoo offers. It’s the last thing he wants to do but if it’s what Howon needs then he’s going to do it in a heartbeat.

“No,” Howon shakes his head quickly, “I don’t like it when you’re not here,”

“Okay,” Myungsoo says, heart aching because of how small Howon sounds but knowing better than to reach for him, “I’m here.”

And he stays, sleeping side by side with Howon but not touching him for the first time in years. It’s okay though because it’s more than Myungsoo deserves, and Myungsoo is going to spend every second of the rest of forever making it up to Howon. 

 

 

_We all want something  
_ _To hold in the night  
_ _We don’t care if it hurts  
_ _When we’re holding to tight_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a scene for this chapter that I removed from the chapter because it was getting a bit long and it was treading ground I covered mostly in the last chapter but I don't want it to go to waste so you can check it out [here](http://infiniteleverage.tumblr.com/post/161433857000/leverage-au-deleted-scene) if you want :)
> 
>  
> 
> Anyway, I seriously cannot believe I've been publishing this AU for a year (The writing anniversary was some time in April) even if I have been pretty MIA the last 6 months. I never thought I'd ever stick with an au for this long or for this many words (over 230K) it's been a wild ride that's for sure.

**Author's Note:**

> Also I've made a sideblog where I basically just reblog things that inspire me for this fic like songs and actual leverage gifsets and Infinite pics so come and [visit me](http://infiniteleverage.tumblr.com/) if you want to have a squiz or a chat or anything :)


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